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A.  C.  McCLURG   &    CO. 
CHICAGO. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH 

WITH  ESSAYS  ON 
ETICTETUS   AND   MARCUS   AURELIUS 


BY 

RT.  REV.  J.  L.  (SPALDING 

33ts{)0p  of 


R 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

OF 

^4££S^ 

CHICAGO 

A.    C.    McCLURG    &    CO. 
1903 


COPYRIGHT 

BY  A.  C.  McCLURG  &  Co. 
A.D.  1903 

PUBLISHED  NOVEMBER  4,  1903 


UNIVERSITY    PRESS     •    JOHN    WILSON 
AND     SON   •    CAMBRIDGE,    U.S.A. 


ACS 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 
GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH      . 3 

EPICTETUS 201 

MARCUS  AURELIUS 223 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH 


EVERY  surmise  and  vaticination  of  the  mind  is  entitled  to  a  certain 
respect,  and  we  learn  to  prefer  imperfect  theories,  and  sentences  which 
contain  glimpses  of  truth,  to  digested  systems  which  have  no  one  valu- 
able suggestion.  —  EMERSON. 

The  study  of  proverbs  may  be  more  instructive  and  comprehensive 
than  the  most  elaborate  scheme  of  philosophy.  —  MOTHERWELL. 

Good  maxims  are  germs  of  all  good ;  firmly  impressed  on  the  memory 
they  nourish  the  will.— »JOUBERT. 

Exclusively  of  the  abstract  sciences  the  largest  and  worthiest  portion 
of  our  knowledge  consists  of  aphorisms ;  and  the  greatest  and  best  of 
men  is  but  an  aphorism.  —  COLERIDGE. 

Why  spin  a  story  when  a  phrase  will  tell  what  thou  hast  to  say? 
Why  read  a  book  when  an  aphorism  will  express  the  truth  a  volume 
may  hold? 

Wisdom  becomes  current  and  passes  most  readily  from  mind  to  mind 
when  it  is  coined  into  proverbs  and  maxims,  which,  holding  a  world  of 
meaning  in  small  compass,  delight  by  their  brevity  and  stimulate  by 
their  wealth  of  implication.  The  wise  seek  these  focuses  of  light  and 
warmth  with  more  eagerness,  cling  to  them  with  more  joy,  and  cherish 
them  with  more  devoutness  than  misers  gold. 


(    UNIVERSITY   } 

X.  r       OF  J 

^^^o^^^ 

GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH 
i. 

THE  delight  there  is  in  becoming  more  and 
more,  whether  by  acquiring  knowledge, 
or  virtue,  or  insight,  or  self-control,  makes 
pleasant  what  else  were  difficult,  tedious,  and 
monotonous.  Spiritual  growth  is  the  aim  and 
end  of  life,  and  nothing  that  ministers  to  it 
can  satiate  or  pall.  This  makes  the  happiness 
of  all  noble  strivers,  whether  they  lay  the  chief 
stress  on  culture  of  mind,  or  formation  of 
character,  or  purification  of  soul. 

How  miserable  were  not  those  ages  in  which 
the  writings  of  Homer  and  Plato,  of  Cicero 
and  Virgil,  existed,  but  had  fallen  into  neg- 
lect and  oblivion.  One  may  or  may  not  deem 
it  a  misfortune  never  to  have  seen  the  monu- 
ments of  Greece  and  Rome;  never  to  have 
looked  from  the  Acropolis  on  the  Attic  plain 
and  its  island-studded  sea;  never  from  Taor- 
mina's  heights  to  have  gazed  on  the  slopes  of 


4  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

TEtna,  stooping  with  their  crown  of  lemon  and 
almond  trees  and  vines  to  the  waters  that  bathe 
their  feet ;  but  only  unraised  and  sluggish  souls, 
only  ignoble  and  brutish  spirits,  can  consent  to 
die  without  having  drunk  the  divine  words  of 
the  greatest  and  most  illumined  minds. 

The  Greek  and  the  Latin,  which  we  call  dead 
languages,  are  not  dead.  They  cannot  die. 
They  live  not  only  in  the  literatures  which  they 
inform  and  which  the  world  will  not  suffer  to 
perish,  but  they  enter  as  a  vital  force  into  the 
tongues  of  the  modern  civilized  peoples.  They 
inspire,  shape,  and  control  the  thoughts  of  the 
most  living  minds.  They  are  a  spur  to  the 
noblest  aspirations;  they  embody  the  beauty 
which  never  grows  old;  they  fire  the  most 
generous  and  gifted  of  each  newborn  genera- 
tion with  a  courage  and  an  enthusiasm  which 
keep  the  race  fresh  and  young.  They  cannot 
die.  They  are  immortal,  because  immortal 
spirits  have  breathed  into  them  the  truth  and 
beauty  which  are  imperishable. 

Though  thou  art  in  the  midst  of  the  world 
and  busy  with  many  things,  it  is  none  the  less 
thy  duty  to  live  within  where  the  soul  finds 
itself  in  the  company  of  God  and  eternal  truth; 
and  if  this  secret  be  hidden  from  thee  thou  art 
doomed  to  a  superficial  and  vulgar  life.  Thou 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  5 

hast  not  yet  attained.  To-day  thou  art  reborn. 
Begin  thy  life  anew.  "  The  greatness  or  small- 
ness  of  a  man,"  says  Ruskin,  "  is  in  the  most 
conclusive  sense  determined  for  him  at  his 
birth,  as  strictly  as  it  is  determined  for  a 
fruit  whether  it  is  to  be  a  currant  or  an 
apricot.  .  .  .  Apricot  out  of  currant  —  great 
man  out  of  small,  did  never  yet  art  or  effort 
make."  This  is  an  instance  of  the  readiness 
with  which  a  comparison  may  be  perverted  to 
insinuate  what  is  false.  No  sane  mind  ever 
imagined  that  education  can  develop  one  species 
from  another,  —  an  eagle  from  a  dove,  an  apple 
from  a  grain  of  wheat,  —  and  yet  Ruskin  thinks 
it  necessary  to  be  emphatic  in  denying  what  no 
one  affirms.  His  argument  is  not  merely  so- 
phistical, but  harmful,  tending  as  it  does  to 
take  away  hope  and  heart  from  students  and 
teachers,  who  are  not  to  labor  for  anything  else 
than  to  make  the  most  of  what  is  given  them 
to  shape  and  fashion.  Except  by  ceaseless  striv- 
ing one  cannot  know  what  he  may  become. 
Each  one,  certainly,  can  attain  skill  in  doing 
whatever  he  can  accustom  himself  to  persevere 
in  doing.  Let  him  learn  to  occupy  himself 
gladly  and  unwearyingly  with  the  things  of  the 
mind,  and  he  will  become  wiser  and  nobler  and 
go  farther  than  as  yet  he  is  able  to  imagine. 


6  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

The  difference  between  great  and  small  men  is 
not  absolute.  There  are  many  kinds  and  de- 
grees of  human  power  and  worth;  and  they 
who  strive  faithfully  for  the  best  attain  it  in 
the  measure  their  talent  makes  possible.  Let 
the  student  have  boundless  trust  in  the  efficacy 
of  self-activity,  in  the  marvellous  excellences 
which  the  habit  of  doing  patiently  and  thor- 
oughly is  capable  of  producing  in  even  the  most 
unpromising  subjects.  Endowments  are  gifts 
of  nature;  but  a  faculty  is  not  so  much  devel- 
oped as  produced  by  education  in  the  large 
sense  of  the  word.  It  does  more  than  unfold: 
it  creates,  it  confers  ability  to  do  what  without 
it  we  should  never  have  power  to  do.  The  vital 
consideration  for  one  who  wishes  to  get  an 
education  is  whether  he  have  the  will  and  the 
courage  to  take  infinite  pains  for  years  or  for 
a  lifetime,  and  this  he  cannot  have  unless  he 
have  infinite  faith  in  the  supreme  worth  of  a 
cultivated  mind  and  a  perfect  character. 

However  great  one's  talent  or  skill,  some- 
thing of  it  is  lost  if  for  a  little  while,  even,  he 
cease  to  improve  himself.  This  is  manifestly 
true  of  artists,  and  it  is  not  less  so  of  those 
whose  instrument  is  more  immediately  the 
mind. 

.Where  man  is  civilized  art  prevails  over  na- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  *J 

ture,  in  government,  in  commerce,  in  war,  in 
literature,  in  the  professions,  in  everything.  In 
the  progress  he  has  been  making  for  ages  he 
has  so  transformed  his  endowments  that  what 
he  has  produced  within  himself  transcends, 
directs,  and  controls  that  which  is  born  in  him. 
Thus  a  few  thousands  of  a  civilized  race  hold 
in  subjection  millions  of  barbarians.  Thus  in 
law,  in  medicine,  and  in  the  ministry,  the  great- 
est students,  not  the  greatest  talents,  reach  the 
summits;  and  so  in  literature  also  they  who 
take  endless  pains  to  educate  themselves,  and 
not  rude  genius,  write  what  becomes  a  per- 
manent part  of  the  spiritual  treasures  of  their 
people  or  of  mankind.  Even  in  the  world  of 
fashion  they  who  are  best  trained  and  culti- 
vated, not  the  best  endowed,  are  the  leaders. 

In  admiring  the  abilities  of  others  what  we 
really  admire  is  the  industry  which  has  pro- 
duced them,  and  which  would  bring  forth  like 
faculties  in  ourselves,  had  we  the  will  and  the 
courage  to  become  perseveringly  self -active. 
The  question  of  education  resolves  itself  for 
each  one  into  learning  how  to  learn.  Be  atten- 
tive, observe,  inquire,  reflect,  meditate,  compare, 
weigh,  write,  not  for  others,  but  for  your  own 
enlightenment  and  improvement;  and  let  all 
this  become  habitual.  The  greatest  genius,  if 


8  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

he  would  accomplish  something  worth  remem- 
bering, must  conform  to  this  law ;  and  they  who 
appear  to  have  little  talent  will,  if  they  obey  it 
faithfully,  be  found  in  the  end  to  have  much. 

Whatever  we  thoroughly  accustom  ourselves 
to  becomes  pleasant,  and  often  indispensable, 
however  disagreeable  it  may  have  been  at  first. 
It  is  this  that  makes  home  sweet,  country  dear, 
and  friends  delightful.  It  is  this  that  gives 
to  study,  meditation,  and  prayer  the  power  to 
refresh,  strengthen,  and  console. 

When  the  mature  look  back  to  their  child- 
hood and  youth  they  cannot  fail  to  perceive 
that  most  of  the  things  which  interested  and 
absorbed  them  had  no  value  or  importance 
other  than  that  wherewith  their  ignorance  and 
inexperience  endowed  them.  The  toys,  the 
games,  the  sights  and  sounds  which  delighted 
them  they  now  recognize  to  have  had  this 
power  only  because  they  themselves  were  weak 
and  foolish,  the  victims  of  illusion.  In  the 
same  way  a  cultivated  and  reflective  mind  sees 
how  unworthy  of  rational  beings  are  the  pas- 
times, pleasures,  and  ambitions  of  the  many. 
They  too  are  victims  of  illusion.  If  he  con- 
sider more  closely  he  finds  that  he  also  is  be- 
guiled by  a  world  of  vanities  and  dreams,  that 
he  is  but  a  child  of  larger  growth,  whose  busi- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  g 

ness,  office,  reputation,  and  schemes,  if  con- 
templated from  the  point  of  view  of  a  higher 
intelligence,  are  as  insignificant,  as  ephemeral, 
as  idle  as  the  playthings  of  children  or  the 
amusements  and  expectations  of  the  ignorant. 
If  all  belief  in  illusion  were  taken  from  us  life 
would  lose  its  charm.  The  estimate  each  one 
places  on  himself  is  illusive;  the  importance  he 
ascribes  to  his  thoughts,  his  words,  his  works, 
is  fictitious.  Were  he  to  perish  at  once  the 
world  would  not  be  more  changed  than  if  a 
mote  dropped  out  of  a  sunbeam.  This  is  true 
of  the  greatest  as  of  the  least  of  mortals.  Man- 
kind would  be  much  what  they  are  had  their 
heroes  never  lived;  and  what  they  are,  if  we 
view  things  in  the  light  of  eternity,  is  but  as 
a  silly  tale.  The  race  is  of  yesterday  and  to- 
morrow it  shall  have  passed  away,  leaving  no 
trace  behind.  Unless  it  is  from  God,  in  Him 
and  for  Him,  it  were  better  it  had  never  been. 

If  we  look  at  things  as  they  are  in  them- 
selves, why  should  we  hold  that  a  plant  is  a 
higher  form  of  existence  than  a  stone,  an  ani- 
mal than  a  plant,  a  man  than  a  mere  brute? 
Only  faith  can  supply  an  adequate  answer: 
faith  that  mind  is  superior  to  matter,  that  it 
is  more  excellent  to  feel  and  think,  to  know 
and  love  than  simply  to  exist:  and  this  faith 


10  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

is  ineradicably  implanted  in  the  human  heart. 
We  believe  that  life  is  the  essential  good,  that 
the  highest  life  is  the  highest  form  of  being, 
and  therefore  that  the  Supreme  Being,  the 
primal  and  creative  cause  of  all  that  exists,  is 
perfect  Life. 

Whatever  within  us  is  born  of  strength, 
whatever  awakens  a  sense  of  power  and  vigor, 
gives  pleasure,  because  we  love  life  and  all  its 
potent  manifestations.  Hence  it  is  delightful 
to  perform  deeds  of  prowess  or  to  see  them 
performed  by  others.  Hence  there  is  a  thrill 
of  joy  in  writing  with  point  and  force,  in 
speaking  with  eloquence  and  effect,  in  control- 
ling and  guiding  the  wills  of  men,  in  arousing 
their  energies  and  impelling  them  to  do  more 
than  they  believed  themselves  capable  of  doing; 
in  inspiring  faith,  hope,  and  courage;  in  en- 
kindling the  flame  of  a  pure  and  noble  love. 
There  is  bliss  in  reading  sublime  words,  in 
the  exaltation  of  spirit  caused  by  lofty  and  im- 
passioned utterances,  by  deeds  of  daring,  by- 
imposing  pageants,  by  storm  and  thunderpeal 
and  the  ceaseless  roar  of  mighty  cataracts;  for 
all  this  arouses  within  us  a  deeper  conscious- 
ness of  the  infinite  power  of  life,  of  the  life  of 
Him  who  breathes  in  the  soul  of  man  and  at- 
tunes it  to  harmony  with  the  awful  and  un- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  II 

imaginable  forces  which  work  in  endless  time 
and  space,  and  fill  the  abysmal  heavens  with 
light  and  beauty. 

The  intelligent  even  often  express  surprise 
that  men  of  great  wealth  should  not  be  content 
with  what  they  have,  but  continue  to  accumu- 
late. Nothing  is  less  surprising,  for  whatever 
man  sets  his  heart  on  must  increase  or  lose  the 
power  to  please,  whether  it  be  money  or  knowl- 
edge or  virtue  or  fame.  To  have  or  to  have 
done  can  satisfy  no  one.  To  feel  ourselves 
alive  we  must  still  acquire,  still  accomplish. 
Our  passions,  like  our  appetites,  are  never 
really  sated,  but  only  lulled  into  a  repose  which 
prepares  them  to  crave  for  more.  Since  our 
yearning  is  infinite,  let  us  yearn  for  the  infinite 
good  which  is  not  material,  but  spiritual;  not 
money  and  the  things  it  buys,  but  truth  and 
love,  which  are  above  all  price. 

A  chief  virtue  of  vital  books  lies  in  their 
power  to  reveal  us  to  ourselves,  to  show  us 
that  we  possess  potentialities  of  ability  of  which 
we  were  not  conscious,  and  so  to  stimulate  us 
to  effort  in  the  direction  of  our  talents.  For 
many  a  one  the  reading  of  such  a  book  for  the 
first  time  has  been  the  beginning  of  a  new  life. 
Contact  with  sublime  souls  is  what  is  most  to 
be  desired,  above  all  for  youth.  It  is  capable 


12  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

of  producing  in  them  a  higher  quality  of  being, 
of  making  them  something  more  and  better 
than  otherwise  they  could  have  become. 

The  aim  and  end  of  education  is  to  produce 
faculty  and  ability,  and  its  one  method  is  habit- 
uation.  To  be  habituable  is  the  first  require- 
ment, the  infallible  proof  of  talent.  What  one 
can  accustom  himself  to,  he  can  learn  to  know 
and  do.  What  is  power  of  attention  or  obser- 
vation or  reflection  but  a  result  of  the  habit  of 
holding  the  mind  to  its  objects?  The  multitude 
of  those  who  pass  through  schools  fail  to  be- 
come scholars  because  they  fail  to  acquire  the 
habit  of  study.  He  who  is  habitually  attentive, 
inquiring,  observant,  eager  to  learn  and  to  cor- 
rect his  defects,  whether  of  mind  or  character, 
whether  of  thought  and  speech  or  of  conduct 
and  deportment,  necessarily  becomes  wiser  and 
nobler,  whatever  difficulties  and  obstacles  con- 
front him.  He  finds  teachers  in  all  that  he 
meets,  and  in  the  face  of  poverty  and  opposi- 
tion works  his  way  to  a  knowledge  of  men 
and  books. 

If  we  have  genuine  powers  they  who  throw 
doubts  on  our  ability  stimulate  us  even  more 
effectually  than  the  expectations  and  urgency 
of  friends;  for  real  strength,  like  heroic  cour- 
age, loves  the  face  of  foes. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  13 

Creative  force  secretes  itself.  It  grows  in 
solitude  and  hiding;  craves  silence  and  ob- 
scurity; wraps  itself  in  mystery.  Where  it 
works  the  soul  bows  in  awe  and  holy  shame, 
and  from  those  who  live  in  the  glare  and  noise 
of  the  clamorous  world,  its  sacred  power  de- 
parts. There  hangs  about  it  the  darkness  that 
brooded  on  primal  chaos,  from  which  the  Eter- 
nal called  forth  a  universe  of  light  and  glory. 
It  lies  in  the  seed  germinating  under  ground; 
it  is  enfolded  in  the  love  of  virginal  hearts;  it 
moves  in  the  meditations  of  sincere  minds,  who 
in  self-forgetfulness  and  tranquillity  bend  all 
their  strength  to  know  truth,  that  they  may 
follow  where  it  leads. 

The  negative  exists  for  the  positive.  Rest  is 
for  the  sake  of  action.  If  night  buries  us  in 
darkness,  it  is  that  we  may  be  all  alive  when 
day  breaks.  Silence  and  solitude  are  for  re- 
freshment of  spirit.  Continence  is  for  self- 
control  and  strength;  humility  for  good  sense; 
abstinence  for  health.  Self-denial  is  for  greater 
ability  to  help  others,  voluntary  poverty  is  for 
their  enrichment;  obedience  is  for  the  sake  of 
liberty  and  the  common  welfare. 

Life  never  seems  so  short  to  me  as  when  I 
think  of  the  books  I  know  something  of  and 
should  wish  to  study  more  and  more.  I  would 


14  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

spend  a  winter  with  Plato,  another  with  Dante, 
another  with  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  <and 
months  or  years  with  the  great  historians, 
story-tellers,  travellers,  and  others  who  can  best 
impart  to  me  what  is  known  of  man  and  na- 
ture. Then  there  is  Aristotle,  Marcus  Aure- 
lius,  Epictetus,  Montaigne,  Descartes,  Bacon, 
Pascal,  Wordsworth,  Goethe,  Emerson,  Kant. 
And  when  they  have  all  been  read  and  studied, 
one  would  wish  to  begin  anew,  feeling  that  now 
he  is  able  to  drink  deeper  draughts  from  these 
perennial  fountains  of  life  and  joy;  for  the 
great  books,  once  we  have  learned  to  know  and 
love  them,  have  for  us,  like  the  flowers  and  the 
stars,  unfailing  power  to  touch,  to  inspire,  to 
console,  to  strengthen,  and  to  exalt.  They  are 
an  unending  world  of  wisdom  and  beauty, 
and  one  has  but  a  day  to  live.  When  we 
are  in  conscious  communion  with  this  spiritual 
infinity  and  plenitude,  we  are  certain  we  are 
immortal. 

Since  the  greater  and  better  part  of  our  hap- 
piness is  found  in  the  free  play  of  the  imagi- 
nation, when  it  is  inspired  by  faith,  hope,  and 
love;  and  since  the  imagination  is  hindered 
and  confused  by  the  noise  of  the  crowd  and 
by  the  conversation  even  of  acquaintances  and 
friends,  it  follows  that  the  purest  delight  must 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  15 

be  sought  in  solitude,  where  the  soul  is  unim- 
peded, and  may  at  will  create  for  itself  divine 
worlds  of  goodness  and  beauty.  There  has 
never  been  a  great  soul  whose  power  was  not 
derived  from  the  communion  with  God  and 
Nature  which  solitude  makes  possible,  as  it 
alone  refreshes  and  recreates  the  wisest  and  the 
purest  when  they  have  become  weary  and  ex- 
hausted. To  be  near  to  God  is  to  be  in  Para- 
dise. Nature  too  soothes  and  helps  us  to  dream 
and  meditate;  and  its  fairest  scenes  would  best 
perform  this  service  were  it  not  that  there  the 
idle  talk  of  men  never  fails  to  intrude  on  our 
bliss. 

A  man  of  genius  is  drawn  by  the  very  con- 
stitution of  his  physical  and  spiritual  being  to 
observe,  to  reflect,  to  remark,  to  compare,  to 
give  heed  to  little  things,  to  discover  likenesses 
and  dissimilitudes,  which  escape  the  notice  of 
ordinary  minds.  He  quickly  accustoms  himself 
to  his  task  and  readily  acquires  habits  of  self- 
activity.  He  need  not  see  much  to  have  large 
experience,  nor  know  much  to  be  able  to  di- 
vine a  great  deal.  A  glimpse  will  show  him 
what  full  sight  fails  to  reveal  to  another  —  a 
word  will  lead  him  to  new  worlds.  He  is  alive 
and  alert  even  when  he  appears  to  be  idle  or 
passive.  Something  of  this  power  which  genius 


1 6  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

confers  on  its  chosen  band  the  teacher  should 
labor  to  enable  his  pupils  to  acquire;  and  pos- 
sibly the  best  means  he  can  employ  is  to  get 
them  to  learn  to  know  and  to  love  the  works 
of  men  of  genius. 

The  chief  value  of  a  man  lies  in  the  thought 
and  love  his  life  embodies  and  reveals,  and 
not  in  the  office  he  fills  or  the  money  he 
accumulates. 

The  most  marvellous  monument  of  a  people's 
genius  is  its  language;  and  it  is  inevitable  that 
the  nations  which  have  created  the  noblest  lit- 
eratures should  have  formed  and  polished  the 
most  excellent  instruments  for  the  expression 
of  their  faith  and  love,  their  thoughts  and 
emotions.  When  there  is  question  of  a  poet  or 
an  orator,  what  we  find  most  admirable  in  him 
is  the  power  and  perfection  of  his  style.  What 
he  says  loses  some  essential  quality  when  it  is 
uttered  in  other  words  than  his  own.  His  man- 
ner is  the  living  vesture  of  the  truth  and  beauty 
which  he  reveals :  it  is  part  of  the  indefinable 
personal  element  without  which  no  writing  can 
be  literature. 

However  true  and  profound  one's  thoughts 
may  be,  he  may  not  hope  to  introduce  them  into 
the  circles  which  are  capable  of  recognizing  and 
appreciating  their  worth,  unless  he  clothe  them 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  17 

in  a  fitting  garb  of  words,  habit  them  in  a  style 
which  shall  commend  and  give  them  currency; 
and  this  skill  they  alone  acquire  who  inure 
themselves  to  the  labor  and  fatigue  which  gen- 
uine writing  involves.  As  the  musician  who 
aims  at  excellence  lets  no  day  pass  without 
exercise  of  his  talent,  so  he  who  would  attain 
beauty,  force,  and  accuracy  of  verbal  expres- 
sion must  keep  his  pen  in  hand  day  by  day, 
and  must  not  weary  of  subjecting  what  he 
writes  to  his  own  pitiless  criticism,  reading, 
and  correcting  again  and  again,  still  dissatis- 
fied when  at  last  forced  to  confess  that  it  is  the 
best  he  can  do. 

The  multitude  are  busy  getting,  spending,  and 
procreating;  and  it  is  only  at  rare  intervals 
that  one  stands  aside,  and  rising  above  the 
throng  takes  as  his  sole  aim,  his  life-purpose, 
the  focussing  and  the  diffusing  of  the  light  of 
truth,  of  the  glow  and  fervor  of  love,  —  the 
unsating  food  which  nourishes  the  soul  and 
sustains  faith  in  humanity.  The  world,  busy 
getting,  spending,  and  procreating,  knows  him 
not  or  heeds  him  not.  He  may  live  in  poverty, 
he  may  die  in  ignominy,  and  his  very  name  be 
swallowed  in  oblivion;  but  he  belongs  to  the 
divine  breed  of  men  who  minister  to  the  spirit- 
ual and  essential  needs  of  the  race,  who  keep 


1 8  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

alive  on  earth  the  consciousness  of  eternal  right 
and  wrong,  who  breaking  through  the  prison  of 
the  senses  rise  to  the  vision  of  immortal  life  in 
and  with  God. 

If  the  gradual  enfeeblement  and  final  extinc- 
tion of  the  power  to  think  highly,  to  resolve 
nobly,  and  to  love  purely  were  the  only  curse  a 
base  life  inflicts,  it  were  none  the  less  more  to  be 
dreaded  and  shunned  than  poverty,  sickness, 
imprisonment,  and  the  loss  of  good  name  and 
friends.  To  barter  the  life  of  the  spirit  for  the 
pleasures  of  sense  is  to  herd  with  brutes  when 
one  might  enter  the  company  of  the  wisest,  the 
fairest,  and  the  holiest. 

He  who  lives  not  in  struggle  and  combat  with 
himself,  if  not  with  others,  leads  not  a  human 
life;  for  he  who  does  not  face  and  overcome 
difficulties  and  obstacles  day  by  day,  makes  no 
progress,  grows  neither  in  mind  nor  in  charac- 
ter. To  this  law  aggregates  not  less  than  in- 
dividuals are  subject.  A  party  or  a  church 
which  is  not  opposed  becomes  corrupt  and  falls 
to  ruin.  Christ  shows  the  way  of  peace  to  those 
who  take  His  cross  and  contend  to  the  uttermost. 
He  came  not,  however,  to  bring  peace,  but  a 
sword,  to  inspire  the  heroic  and  sublime  strug- 
gles in  which  souls  athirst  for  truth,  justice,  and 
love  confront  without  fear  a  world  in  arms 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  1 9 

against  them.  This  warfare  is  the  indispensable 
condition  of  intellectual,  moral,  and  religious 
life,  and  when  peace  is  sought  through  compro- 
mise the  result  is  not  peace,  but  decay  and 
death. 

We  love  the  company  of  those  who  put  us 
at  ease,  who  entertain  and  amuse  us,  who 
make  us  self-contented ;  but  only  they  are  help- 
ful to  us  who  stimulate  us,  who  rouse  us  to 
effort,  who  make  self-complacent  thoughts  im- 
possible, who  fill  us  with  a  yearning  for  higher 
things,  who  inspire  a  persistent  longing  to  make 
ourselves  wiser,  purer,  and  stronger. 

Profound  minds  compel  us  to  think.  In 
uttering  deeper  truth  than  others,  they  suggest 
more;  and  those  are  frequently  the  most  stim- 
ulating whose  world  view  differs  from  our  own. 
They  oblige  us  to  gain  a  larger  comprehension 
of  our  position  and  to  grasp  with  firmer  hold 
the  truths  which  are  ours.  They  persuade  us 
to  look  again,  and  help  us  to  more  profound 
intuitions.  In  following  them  we  grow  clear- 
headed, though  abysses  yawn  and  chasms  open 
before  our  advancing  steps,  until  at  length  we 
learn  to  walk  without  fear  or  dread,  in  a  uni- 
verse which  God  makes,  and  makes  for  those  who 
know  and  love  its  truth  and  beauty.  Until  we 
have  made  ourselves  at  home  in  the  company 


20  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

of  one  or  several  of  these  supreme  minds  we  are 
but  children  for  whom  the  darkness  is  full  of 
terrors,  who  people  the  unknown  with  imaginary 
shapes  and  horrors. 

At  first  view  one  is  tempted  to  believe  that 
it  is  the  tendency  of  civilization  to  make  men 
more  alike,  since  it  produces  greater  uniformity 
and  sameness  in  customs  and  manners,  in  dress 
and  behavior.  But  the  differences  among  the 
civilized  are  deeper  and  more  far-reaching  than 
among  savages  and  barbarians.  They  are  differ- 
ences of  mind  and  character,  of  ideas  and  sen- 
timents. They  are  radical,  they  touch  the 
essence  of  life;  while  the  uncivilized,  however 
dissimilar  they  may  appear  to  be,  are  alike  in 
their  common  ignorance,  in  their  short-sighted- 
ness, in  their  inability  to  change  or  make  prog- 
ress in  the  monotony  and  dulness  of  their  whole 
existence.  The  world  they  live  in  is  but  little 
removed  from  that  of  mere  animals.  It  is  a 
world  of  appetite  and  slavish  conformity.  They 
look  not  before  and  after,  but  from  generation 
to  generation,  and  from  century  to  century 
tread  the  same  narrow  paths. 

"  If  religion  is  not  true,"  says  Leopardi,  "  it 
is  man's  greatest  evil  and  the  supreme  injury 
which  his  inquiries,  reasonings,  and  meditations, 
or  his  illusions,  have  inflicted  upon  him."  Let 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  21 

us  assume  that  there  is  no  God  and  no  soul,  and 
that  religion  consequently  has  no  logical  or  real 
foundation.  The  non-existence  of  God  and  the 
soul  leaves  nothing  but  the  physical  universe, 
and  the  deepest  thought  shows  that  not  even 
that  remains  in  the  absence  of  conscious  being. 
There  is  no  free  will,  no  right  nor  wrong,  no 
truth  nor  justice,  but  man  is  wholly  swallowed 
in  the  swirl  of  matter.  If  the  brief  day  of 
earthly  life  is  the  beginning  and  end  of  human 
existence,  can  it  be  deemed  an  evil  and  a  supreme 
injury  for  man  that  during  the  fleeting  moments 
of  his  passage  from  nothingness  to  nothingness 
he  should  cherish  faith  in  the  freedom  of  the 
will,  in  truth  and  justice  and  in  the  distinction 
between  right  and  wrong  ?  They  alone  can  think 
so  who,  like  Leopardi,  hold  that  life  itself  is  a 
curse. 

Old  age  is  a  disease  to  which  families  and 
peoples,  like  individuals,  must  succumb.  Nay, 
planets  and  suns,  the  universe  itself,  will  grow 
old  and  perish.  To  begin  to  exist  is  to  begin 
to  cease  to  exist,  and  brief  is  whatever  comes 
to  end.  In  this  lies  the  vanity  of  all  things,  their 
shadowlike  and  unsubstantial  nature.  It  is  this 
that  fills  the  soul  with  pathos,  making  it  a  ghost, 
haunting  a  world  falling  to  ruin.  It  is  this  that 
consoles  it  too,  awakening  within  it  the  con- 


22  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

sciousness  that  though  heaven  and  earth  pass 
away,  it,  like  God,  shall  endure.  My  childhood 
and  youth  yielded  to  time  and  vanished;  the 
friends  that  sprang  about  me  as  flowers  bloom 
in  the  spring,  faded  and  fell.  Again  and  again 
my  garden  has  become  a  wilderness,  but  I  my- 
self survive,  and  shall  though  a  thousand  homes 
should  harbor  me  and  then  turn  to  charnel- 
houses. 

For  trouble  and  misfortune  we  may  find 
some  consolation  in  reflecting  that  they  are  gen- 
erally less  real  and  grave  than  imagination 
would  lead  us  to  believe,  and  that  if  rightly 
borne  they  are  rarely  without  a  remedy  or  some 
resulting  good.  When  we  look  back  we  are 
aware  that  the  cares  and  sorrows  which  threat- 
ened to  overwhelm  us  passed  away  without  in- 
flicting fatal  injury,  but  not  without  leaving  us 
gentler  and  wiser.  So  it  may  be  with  all  the 
evils  which  can  befall  if  we  are  but  true.  The 
only  ills  in  which  no  good  can  be  found  are  a 
mind  debased,  a  conscience  deadened,  a  soul 
which  sin  has  made  incapable  of  faith,  hope, 
and  love. 

The  more  religious  and  the  more  philosophic 
the  mind,  the  less  one  feels  the  need  of  asso- 
ciating his  life  and  happiness  with  any  other 
than  God;  and  this  growing  isolation  from  the 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  23 


things  and  beings  that  are  passing  away  does 
not  diminish  love  and  sympathy  and  the  desire 
to  be  of  help,  but  gives  them  a  purer  quality  and 
a  deeper  efficacy. 

Consciousness  of  defects  is  largely  wanting. 
The  near-sighted  believe  they  see  as  well  as 
others  until  experiment  forces  them  to  recognize 
their  shortness  of  vision.  They  who  have  no 
ear  for  music  are  not  aware  of  the  fact  unless 
it  is  forced  on  their  attention ;  nor  do  those  who 
lack  the  sense  for  beauty  feel  the  deficiency.  The 
miser  and  the  lecher  think  all  men  are  like  them- 
selves. It  does  not  occur  to  the  savage  or  the 
barbarian  to  imagine  that  his  language  is  but 
a  jargon.  The  things  to  which  we  are  accus- 
tomed appear  to  be  good  enough  until  we  have 
been  made  acquainted  with  better.  The  old 
ways  satisfy  us  so  long  as  we  have  no  knowl- 
edge of  the  new;  and  hence  a  change  from  a 
lower  to  a  higher  environment  arouses  dormant 
energies  and  brings  wider  worlds  into  view.  It 
is  the  purpose  of  education  to  enable  us  to  per- 
ceive wherein  we  are  lacking  and  to  awaken 
within  us  an  ever-growing  desire  to  overcome 
the  defects  of  which  the  educative  process  makes 
us  conscious.  The  result  is  the  self-activity 
which  is  the  condition  and  the  secret  of  progress, 
intellectual,  moral,  aesthetic,  and  religious. 


24  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

We  find  what  we  seek  if  the  seeking  be  per- 
sistent, and  what  we  crave  be  wisdom  and  right- 
eousness, purity  and  peace. 

Become  and  do  the  best  it  is  possible  for  thee 
to  become  and  do,  and  it  matters  not  at  all  by 
what  title  thou  art  known,  or  how  environed  and 
attended.  In  what  bodily  form  the  soul  may 
have  dwelt,  or  in  the  midst  of  what  circum- 
stances, is  insignificant.  All  this  fades  and  melts 
to  nothingness.  But  the  divine  thought,  the 
heroic  temper,  the  undying  hope,  are  imperish- 
able and  forever  precious.  Greatness  of  soul 
alone,  says  Pericles,  never  grows  old. 

The  crowd  will  never  believe  that  position 
and  wealth  are  doubtful  goods;  but  the  wisest 
and  the  purest  know  that  whatever  draws  the 
soul  to  the  surface  and  binds  it  in  servitude  to 
matter  is  a  hindrance  to  the  truest  and  highest 
life. 

We  truly  pray  only  for  what  we  persistently 
work  for. 

We  can  beseech  God  to  give  us  only  what 
we  desire,  admire,  long  for,  believe  in,  and  feel 
the  need  of.  It  is  easy  therefore  to  pray  for 
health  and  wealth,  but  our  hearts  and  words 
grow  faint  when  we  ask  our  Father  in  heaven 
to  make  us  lowly-minded  and  pure,  unselfish 
and  loving,  obedient  and  resigned. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  2$ 

Youth  intoxicates,  and  lust  and  greed  and 
hate  and  ambition;  and  it  is  as  hard  to  find  a 
sober  man  as  a  true  man. 

In  politics  or  war  an  accident  may  make  one 
famous;  but  they  whom  wisdom  and  virtue 
make  known  live  in  worlds  where  chance  has 
no  meaning. 

In  moments  of  the  highest  spiritual  exalta- 
tion the  forms  of  time  and  space  fall  from  the 
soul,  and  man  feels  himself  alive  in  the  light  of 
God's  eternal,  absolute  being. 

He  is  rich  who  is  able  and  willing  to  impart 
to  whomsoever  he  meets  the  best  wealth  — 
truth  and  wisdom  and  whatever  else  is  spiritual 
power. 

To  know  the  best  that  has  been  done  and  said 
profits  little,  unless  we  love  and  live  by  it  all, 
replunging  day  by  day  into  the  sweet  and  puri- 
fying stream. 

We  can  never  be  thankful  enough  that  there 
is  always  good  work  to  do. 

True  insight  is  the  rarest  of  gifts  —  the  dis- 
tinctive mark  of  sanctity  and  genius. 

The  essential  goods  are  good  thoughts,  good 
desires,  good  deeds.  That  they  may  be,  the 
universe  exists. 

The  ideal  is  not  pleasure,  but  virtue  and 
power.  "  Life,"  says  Marcus  Aurelius,  "  is 
more  like  wrestling  than  dancing." 


26  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

As  a  man's  appetites  assert  themselves  de- 
spite all  obstacles,  so  his  religion,  if  it  be  more 
than  a  name,  will  have  irresistible  sway  over 
him. 

The  general  tenor  of  life  is  the  same  for  all, 
and  superior  natures  are  revealed  by  their  ability 
to  make  occasional  escapes  into  the  higher  world 
of  thought  and  love.  The  commonplace  pursues 
us  everywhere,  and  the  greatest  minds  even  are 
driven  to  utter  themselves,  except  in  fortunate 
moments,  in  the  commonplace. 

Where  there  is  true  worth  there  will  be  ap- 
preciation, if  not  immediately,  in  the  end.  But 
they  who  are  eager  to  be  recognized  can  neither 
say  nor  do  aught  on  which  the  mark  of  perma- 
nent value  can  be  stamped. 

The  deeper  and  more  real  our  knowledge  the 
more  wonderful  we  perceive  the  objects  of 
thought  to  be;  and  so  the  wise  come  to  under- 
stand that  the  beatitude  of  the  All-perfect  can  be 
nothing  else  than  self-contemplation  —  the  high- 
est form  of  self-activity  wherein  the  antithesis 
between  subject  and  object  is  transcended  and 
subsumed. 

My  faith,  hope,  love,  knowledge,  interest,  in 
whatever  thing  or  cause,  are  determined  chiefly 
by  what  I  myself  am.  In  mere  matter  there  is 
no  faith,  hope,  love,  knowledge,  or  interest  of 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  2/ 

whatever  kind ;  and  the  higher  we  ascend  in  the 
scale  of  being,  the  higher  our  faith,  hope,  love, 
knowledge,  and  interest  become. 

Whether  it  be  due  to  youth  and  immaturity, 
or  to  ignorance  and  stupidity,  or  to  uncontrolled 
animal  instinct  and  perversity,  there  are  innu- 
merable human  beings  who  become  the  more 
enslaved  and  worthless  the  more  they  are  given 
freedom  to  do  as  they  please. 

There  is  an  all-pervading  transubstantiation 
of  nature  into  spiritual  realities.  The  waves  of 
sound  set  in  motion  by  the  voice  are,  as  they 
strike  on  the  ear,  but  atmospheric  vibrations 
which  the  soul  transmutes  into  symbols  of 
truth,  goodness,  and  beauty.  In  the  laws  of  na- 
ture mind  utters  itself  to  mind.  That  which  is 
borne  in  upon  us  from  without  is  akin  to  us;  it 
has  significance  and  value  for  us ;  it  is  a  message 
from  the  Eternal  to  beings  whom  He  has  called 
into  existence  that  they  may  become  and  know 
and  love  more  and  more  for  ever  and  ever.  Ex- 
cept for  souls  by  whom  it  is  seen,  known,  and 
loved  there  can  be  no  beauty  nor  truth  nor 
goodness. 

The  beautiful  is  useful  also,  its  highest  use 
lying  in  its  power  to  lift  man  to  worlds  where 
he  may  see  within,  above,  and  beyond  all  that 
appears,  the  infinite  wisdom  and  love  of  God. 


28  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Whatever  is  is  a  result  of  the  nature  of  things 
and  is  by  God's  permission.  Let  nothing  then 
disturb  thee  or  weaken  thy  efforts  to  become 
obedient,  just,  loving,  and  serviceable. 

Self-respect  is  an  essential  good.  Where  it 
is  lacking,  nothing  by  which  life  may  be  en- 
vironed can  give  true  contentment  or  delight, 
while  whatever  heightens  it  brings  joy.  Since 
right  conduct  is  the  chief  nourisher  of  self- 
respect,  a  virtuous  life  is  the  happiest. 

Good  name  environs  and  commends  a  man 
like  a  beautiful  home,  or  a  becoming  dress, 
or  the  company  of  the  gracious  and  refined. 
It  is,  the  scripture  says,  a.  sweet-smelling 
unguent. 

Of  many  of  the  minor  virtues  on  which  hap- 
piness and  success  so  largely  depend,  we  may 
say  that  to  acquire  them  it  is  sufficient  not  to 
despise  them. 

The  things  we  believe  in,  admire,  and  desire 
genuinely  and  perseveringly  are  at  length  in- 
wrought into  the  substance  of  our  being.  "  As 
a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so  is  he."  Abeunt 
studia  in  mores. 

Custom  rules  the  world  more  than  opinion, 
for  opinion  is  born  of  custom. 

Laws  which  are  not  supported  and  enforced 
by  public  opinion  are  ineffectual,  because  laws 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  29 

are  little  else  than  the  authoritative  expression 
and  proclamation  of  public  opinion. 

Rights  imply  duties  and  are  measured  by 
them.  One  has  the  right  to  do  what  duty  com- 
mands, and  in  the  strict  sense  no  other  right. 
The  higher  and  holier  the  duties  the  more  sacred 
and  inviolable  the  rights.  The  wise  and  the 
good  lay  claim  to  no  right  but  to  be  of  service, 
desire  no  freedom  but  to  obey  conscience. 

If  thou  canst  but  grow  wise  and  loving 
enough,  men  will  clamor  for  thy  help  as  the 
famishing  cry  for  food. 

No  thoughts,  hopes,  beliefs,  aims,  or  deeds 
are  good  unless,  if  known  to  others,  they  in- 
spire courage  and  sympathy  and  consequently 
aversion  from  whatever  is  hurtful  to  human 
life. 

As  mightiest  men  have  found  more  comfort 
in  the  love  of  some  poor  woman  than  in  the 
worship  of  the  world,  so  the  wisest  cherish 
simple  truth  more  than  all  wealth  and  fame. 

Life  is  the  supreme  good.  Teach  me,  O 
heavenly  Father,  to  know  and  love  more  and 
more  the  truth  which  shall  compel  me  to  live  the 
life  which  is  Thyself;  for  I  can  rightly  know 
divine  truth  and  beauty  and  goodness  only  in  so 
far  as  my  believing,  yearning,  and  striving  in- 
corporate them  in  my  life. 


3O  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Truth  is  formal  and  cold  unless  emotion 
clothe  it  with  warmth  and  evoke  its  vital  power. 
They  who  have  best  wrought  this  miracle  have 
most  surely  escaped  oblivion;  for  they  have 
touched  the  secret  spring  of  the  most  imperish- 
able and  the  most  irresistible  thing  in  man, 
which  is  sentiment ;  and  so  long  as  their  words 
shall  survive,  so  long  shall  that  which  is  deepest 
and  most  enduring  in  our  nature  respond  to  their 
appeal. 

Let  those  whose  life  is  on  the  surface  have 
position  and  wealth ;  but  live  thou  within  where 
the  soul  makes  itself  a  home. 

The  cause  which  makes  the  universe  a 
cosmos  must  be,  in  its  inmost  nature,  intelli- 
gent and  moral.  This  is  a  truth  of  reason ;  but 
I  need  it  not,  for  a  thousand  times  God  has 
saved  me  from  my  ignorance,  blindness,  and 
folly,  reaching  forth  as  from  the  inner  heart  of 
being  a  hand  of  guidance  and  love. 

One  who  leads  the  life  which  reason  and  con- 
science reveal  and  prescribe  feels  the  unsatis- 
factoriness  of  whatever  is  external,  whether  it 
be  some  object  in  nature  or  the  artificial  world 
in  which  ambition,  greed,  and  sensuality  are  the 
ruling  forces.  He  gets  insight  into  the  fact 
that  in  the  beginning,  midmost,  and  in  the  end, 
the  soul,  with  its  abiding  universe  of  truth, 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  31 

goodness,  and  beauty,  is  the  primal  and  ultimate 
reality  and  value.  He  understands  therefore 
that  if  a  man  lose  his  soul,  —  his  faith,  his 
hope,  his  aspiration  and  his  love,  —  all  gain  is 
loss. 

And  so,  says  Socrates,  as  Plato  reports  in 
Gorgias,  bidding  farewell  to  those  things  which 
most  men  account  honors,  and  looking  forward 
to  the  truth,  I  shall  earnestly  endeavor  to  grow 
so  far  as  may  be  in  goodness,  and  thus  live, 
and  thus,  when  the  time  comes,  die. 

The  ground  of  my  confidence,  the  joy  I  find 
in  believing  in  God  and  in  His  Christ,  is  en- 
rooted in  the  hope  that  I  may  still  improve ;  for 
if  I  could  be  certain  that  I  should  never  become 
wiser  or  more  unselfish  or  more  loving  I  should 
despair  and  feel  there  is  no  God.  Since,  then, 
my  capacity  for  self-improvement  is  the  main- 
spring of  my  happiness,  I  am  senseless  if  I  do 
not  strive  day  by  day  to  grow  better,  more  rev- 
erent, more  self-devoted,  more  lowly-minded, 
more  loving. 

They  who  keep  climbing  will  at  last  find 
themselves  alone  where  nothing  but  God's  pres- 
ence has  power  to  cheer  and  console.  Shall  we 
therefore  prefer  the  low  levels  where  men  be- 
guile and  delude  themselves  with  the  chasing 
of  phantoms?. 


32  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

If  like  God  man  could  know  all  things,  like 
Him  he  would  have  all  power,  for  knowledge 
is  the  highest  form  of  power;  and  since  to 
grow  like  to  God  is  his  one  business,  it  is  his 
duty  to  seek  wisdom  and  understanding  not  less 
than  purity  and  righteousness. 

The  divine  discontent,  while  it  leaves  us 
strength  and  will  to  do  the  best  we  can  do, 
drives  us  so  to  perform  the  task  that  our  work 
shall  become  an  encouragement  to  many  and  a 
light  to  the  yet  unborn ;  so  to  act  that  what  we 
do  may  not  only  be  in  harmony  with  the  eternal 
laws,  but  may  possess  also  something  of  the 
charm  which  nothing  but  a  noble  personality 
can  give  to  words  and  deeds. 

To  lose  faith  in  God  is  to  abandon  hope ;  for 
however  much  we  laud  our  prosperities,  we 
know  and  feel  that  unless  God  is,  it  is  all  but 
a  comedy  of  fools  and  a  dance  of  death.  If  we 
cannot  lay  hold  on  Him  we  are  aware,  even 
in  the  midst  of  those  who  trust  and  love  us, 
that  we  are  but  decoys  to  lure  to  nothingness; 
useless  even  for  this,  since  the  inevitable  end  is 
the  extinction  of  all  consciousness.  Our  ever- 
widening  knowledge  of  nature  and  history  in- 
volves us  in  intellectual  and  moral  difficulties 
which  may  be  insuperable;  but  if  we  could  be 
certain  that  the  universe  is  self-evolved,  and 


GLIMPSES   OF  TRUTH.  33 

that  the  fatal  process  is  from  the  unconscious 
to  the  unconscious,  all  seriousness,  all  speech 
of  law  and  right  and  duty  would  be  as  ridicu- 
lous as  the  clutter  of  apes. 

If  thou  wouldst  accomplish  something  of 
worth,  think  not  of  thyself  but  of  thy  work. 

To  be  a  true  and  unfailing  helper  and  bene- 
factor one  must  have  ceased  to  care  whether 
the  good  he  does  shall  ever  be  known,  or  if 
known  whether  credit  shall  be  given  to  him. 
He  must  be  of  service  as  unselfishly  as  the 
flowers  bloom  and  the  light  diffuses  itself,  as 
the  waters  leap  and  the  birds  sing;  and  his  re- 
ward must  be  the  consciousness  of  doing  right, 
which  is  the  unfailing  source  of  life  and  joy. 

The  abidingly  interesting  and  attractive  are 
made  so,  not  by  their  physical  but  by  their  in- 
tellectual and  moral  qualities.  The  most  beau- 
tiful woman  if  she  be  dull  or  ignorant  or 
coarse  or  shrewish  quickly  loses  the  power  to 
please  and  becomes  an  object  of  indifference 
or  repulsion. 

The  man  of  action  must  throw  himself  into 
the  full  stream  of  life;  but  the  thinker  if  he 
is  to  think  to  good  purpose  must  withdraw 
from  the  turmoil  of  the  world. 

The  wise  think  of  the  virtues  more  than  of 
the  vices  of  men ;  for  the  good  inspire  hope  and 
3 


34  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

confidence,  while  the  example  of  the  wicked,  if 
it  do  not  corrupt,  produces  at  least  a  certain 
enfeeblement  and  despondency. 

There  is  not  an  atom  or  a  molecule  which 
could  have  been  brought  into  existence  by  less 
than  infinite  knowledge  and  power.  Within  me 
and  without,  then,  there  is  infinite  knowledge 
and  power.  If  I  am  helpless  and  ignorant,  it  is 
because  I  am  hardly  alive;  and  if  anything  I 
call  mine,  as  my  learning  or  virtue  or  property 
or  position,  is  a  good  for  me,  it  is  so  only  in 
so  far  as  it  makes  me  more  alive.  The  absolute 
reality  is  life  —  the  rest  is  form  and  appear- 
ance; and  I  am  reconciled  to  death  because  I 
feel  and  am  persuaded  that  it  is  but  the  dark  and 
awful  gateway  to  wider  worlds  and  larger  life. 

They  who  have  best  known  how  to  express 
the  vital  and  essential  truths  are  the  great 
teachers  and  the  great  masters  of  style. 

My  private  benefit  is  no  benefit  at  all.  If 
it  is  to  be  a  joy  and  a  blessing  to  me,  it  must 
be  shared;  and  though  my  work  bring  me 
but  disappointment  and  care,  yet  if  I  feel  that 
for  others  it  shall  become  the  source  of  inner 
freedom  and  strength,  for  myself  also  it  is 
converted  into  wealth  and  power. 

If  thou  exalt  thyself  thou  compellest  remem- 
brance of  the  hideousness  of  thy  baser  nature; 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  35 

but  if  thou  art  reverent,  mild,  and  helpful,  the 
wise  and  the  good  will  think  only  of  thy  heav- 
enly descent  and  destiny. 

As  in  a  herd,  when  a  few  wallow  in  the 
mire  all  are  made  filthy  by  contact,  so  are  the 
innocent  defiled  by  evil  company. 

Loyalty  is  to  principles,  and  to  persons  only 
in  so  far  as  they  are  symbols  and  representa- 
tives of  principles. 

Objections  to  what  increases  in  the  multitude 
the  power  of  reason  and  conscience  are  not 
worth  considering  unless  we  are  prepared  to 
think  that  conscious  life  is  a  curse.  Nor  are 
the  objections  to  the  inventions  and  contriv- 
ances which  enable  ever-growing  multitudes  to 
gain  a  livelihood  with  less  labor  and  toil  of  any 
weight.  The  large  and  deep  view  shows  us 
that  democratic  government,  popular  education, 
machinery  and  capital,  all  co-operate  with  reli- 
gion to  lift  mankind  to  higher  and  broader 
levels,  though  the  evils  incident  to  the  process 
may  at  times  appear  to  overbalance  the  good. 

The  harmony  which  is  produced  by  fear  or 
greed  will  break  into  discord  so  soon  as  the 
danger  or  occasion  has  passed.  A  permanent 
union  can  be  based  only  on  permanent  prin- 
ciple and  interests.  Hence  the  only  secure 
foundation  of  national  peace  and  prosperity  is 


36  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

religion,  morality,  and  justice;  and  the  greater 
the  freedom  and  intelligence  the  greater  the 
need  of  these  conservative  forces. 

Egotism  and  heroism  exclude  each  other. 
The  hero  thinks  not  of  himself,  but  he  gives  all 
he  has,  his  very  life,  for  what  he  loves  more 
than  himself.  The  egotist  is  bound  up  within 
himself.  He  loves  his  safety,  his  ease,  his 
comfort,  his  .pleasure,  and  he  clings  to  them, 
though  to  do  so  he  have  to  sacrifice  truth, 
justice,  and  honor,  good  name  and  friends,  and 
whatever  else  a  noble  soul  holds  to  be  most 
precious.  He  has  neither  patriotism  nor  reli- 
gion, neither  a  great  mind  nor  a  generous  heart, 
but  tethered  like  a  beast  he  moves  in  a  narrow 
circle  whose  centre  is  his  shrivelled  self;  and 
in  seeking  what  may  minister  to  his  idolatry 
he  loses  both  the  sense  of  the  worth  of  life  and 
the  power  to  enjoy  its  sweetest  blessings. 

Life  is  said  to  be  dull  and  monotonous,  and 
yet  its  variety  is  so  endless  that  it  is  never  the 
same  for  any  two  human  beings;  and  for  each 
one  it  varies  from  day  to  day  and  from  year  to 
year.  The  sameness  lies  in  our  heavy  sluggish 
natures,  and  if  we  arouse  and  make  ourselves 
alive  we  find  infinite  entertainment. 


II. 


THE  power  of  habit  may  be  seen  in  those 
whom  it  reconciles  to  things  nature 
shrinks  from  —  in  undertakers,  grave-diggers, 
butchers,  scavengers,  and  all  who  work  in  filth 
and  ordure.  It  is  habit  that  creates  for  each 
one  a  separate  world  which  he  finds  pleasant 
or  endurable.  It  enables  those  who  dwell  in 
the  midst  of  deserts  and  rocks  and  everlasting 
snows  to  adapt  themselves  to  their  surround- 
ings and  love  their  homes.  It  is  habit  that 
endears  the  ocean  to  the  sailor,  the  forest  to 
the  savage,  the  cell  to  the  hermit,  the  sanctuary 
to  the  worshipper,  and  the  book  to  the  student. 
Whatever  kind  of  life  commends  itself  to  man 
as  good  and  desirable,  habit  will  enable  him  to 
lead.  If  it  be  a  life  to  which  money  is  indis- 
pensable, the  habit  of  industry  and  economy 
will  procure  him  riches;  if  it  be  a  life  of 
knowledge  and  virtue  the  habit  of  study  and 
right-doing  will  secure  them  for  him.  Its  force 
extends  to  the  whole  circle  of  human  affairs. 


38  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

It  regulates  the  course  of  our  daily  actions, 
determines  when  we  shall  sleep  and  when  we 
shall  wake,  when  we  shall  sit  at  table  and  when 
we  shall  rise.  It  decides  what  work  we  shall 
do,  what  games  we  shall  play.  A  complete 
theory  of  habituation  would  be  the  sum  of  prac- 
tical wisdom,  a  comprehensive  system  of  peda- 
gogics, and  a  safe  guide  for  whoever  occupies 
himself  with  education.  If  a  man  is  perfectible 
it  is  because  he  is  habituable.  If  he  is  corrupt  or 
perverse  it  is  because  good  habits  have  not  been 
formed  in  him  by  those  who  influenced  and  con- 
trolled his  childhood  and  youth;  for  whoever 
can  be  led  astray  is  capable  under  right  guid- 
ance of  accustoming  himself  to  a  life  of  honor 
and  virtue. 

The  saying,  Be  great  and  be  miserable,  may 
be  true  of  those  whom  wealth  or  position  dis- 
tinguishes, but  not  of  those  whom  mind  and 
character  raise  and  confirm. 

The  meditator  even  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
pleasant  company  is  like  an  exile  who  though 
surrounded  by  the  noblest  monuments  and  the 
fairest  scenes  of  foreign  lands  still  dreams  of 
home. 

They  who  live  for  pleasure  live  without  joy. 

So  long  as  the  fountain  within  flows  strong 
and  clear  we  believe  and  know  and  feel  that  life 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  39 

'is  good;    for  from  this  inner  source  when  it 
runs  pure  and  full,  faith  and  hope,  love  and  joy 
rise  as   freely  as   fragrance   from  the  flowers 
kwhen  they  bloom. 

We  are  capable  of  taking  interest  in  others 
:to  the  extent  in  which  we  feel  ourselves  to  be 
interesting. 

Of  all  habits  that  which  it  is  most  needful  to 
acquire  is  the  habit  of  striving  consciously  and 
ceaselessly  to  improve,  to  surpass  one's  self,  to 
grow  in  wisdom  and  grace,  to  develop  within 
one's  self  higher  and  higher  quality  and  potency 
of  life. 

A  habit  of  carefulness  in  all  things  is  one  of 
the  best  results  of  right  education. 

If  we  are  asked  why  the  drunkard,  the 
lecher,  the  liar,  and  the  thief  do  not  reform 
we  reply  that  it  is  because  they  are  the  victims 
of  habit;  and  the  same  answer  is  to  be  given 
if  the  question  be  why  the  rich  are  still  eager 
to  add  to  their  wealth. 

A  man  may  live  content  in  darkness  and 
captivity  if  within  there  shine  the  light  which 
gladdens  the  soul. 

One  cannot  know  whether  his  work  shall 
have  been  done  in  vain.  Whatever  happen, 
he  must  continue  to  strive  or  he  will  sink  into 
hebetude  and  nullity.  Let  each  one  therefore 


4O  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

do  with  all  his  might  as  though  God  had 
poised  the  world's  welfare  on  his  single  will. 

Not  what  is,  still  less  what  is  known,  but 
what  imagination  bodies  forth  makes  the  world 
in  which  each  one  of  us  lives,  to  which  nothing 
but  faith,  desire,  and  love  give  meaning  and 
worth.  In  losing  our  illusions,  unless  some 
nobler  dream  take  their  place,  we  lose  relish 
for  life. 

No  power  can  save  fools  and  sinners  from 
the  consequences  of  their  sin  and  folly;  and 
were  this  not  so,  there  would  perhaps  be  none 
but  fools  and  sinners. 

Evil  is  everything  which  weakens  admiration, 
reverence,  and  love. 

Still  seek  to  learn,  but  let  thy  first  and  final 
aim  be  to  get  wisdom  and  virtue,  for  if  they  be 
lacking,  knowledge  is  vanity. 

From  slime  to  slime  along  slimy  ways,  and 
for  the  rest  mere  nothingness  in  the  bosom  of 
the  eternally  unconscious.  This  is  the  atheist's 
sum  of  all  we  are  and  know.  But  however 
men  may  live,  such  a  creed  must  forever  be 
incredible. 

The  complete  attainment  of  truth,  goodness, 
and  beauty  is  the  end  of  life;  faith,  hope,  and 
love  the  means. 

The  more  unselfish  and  unenvious  we  are  the 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  41 

larger  the  world  in  which  we  are  able  to  live 
with  sympathy  and  delight. 

Thy  virtues  are  all  the  more  real  the  less 
thou  thinkest  of  them;  but  thy  vices  thou 
canst  not  study  too  assiduously. 

The  love- winning  force  of  one's  religion  and 
piety  is  no  uncertain  test  of  their  truth  and 
genuineness. 

Make  thyself  wise  and  good,  and  thou  shalt 
know  that  there  is  no  joy  but  in  being  useful. 

Religion  is  a  food  or  a  medicine.  If  those 
who  partake  of  the  food  are  made  healthful  and 
vigorous;  if  those  who  take  the  medicine  are 
cured  of  their  ills,  we  are  persuaded  that  they 
are  wholesome  and  efficacious;  and  so  when 
those  who  accept  the  doctrines  and  follow 
the  practices  prescribed  by  religion  are  wise, 
chaste,  mild,  generous,  cheerful,  brave,  and 
large-minded,  their  manner  of  life  commends 
their  faith  better  than  arguments.  There  is, 
however,  a  perversity  of  human  nature  which 
shuts  out  the  view  of  goodness  when  it  is  a 
virtue  of  those  whom  we  dislike. 

The  important  thing  is  not  what  we  know, 
but  what  knowledge  is  a  vital  element  in  our 
thinking  and  doing. 

The  good  do  right  because  righteousness  is 
God's  will,  the  command  of  reason,  the  law  of 


42  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

conscience,  the  purpose,  aim,  and  end  of  life, 
since  it  is  life.  To  do  good  in  the  hope  of 
pleasing  others  is  by  implication  a  denial  of 
the  supreme  worth  of  truth  and  virtue. 

Life  is  cut  in  two  by  the  line  of  sex,  and  by 
the  union  of  the  sexes  it  is  reconstituted  and 
propagated.  In  the  case  of  man  the  Christian 
religion  and  the  consent  of  the  wise  teach  that 
except  in  wedlock  this  union  is  defilement  and 
desecration.  But  even  in  wedlock  it  is  a  per- 
version and  degradation  whenever  the  one  pur- 
pose by  which  it  is  sanctified  is  absent.  The 
incontinence  of  the  married  weakens  and  lowers 
the  race  more  than  prostitution  and  adultery; 
for  these  are  condemned  and  opposed  by  all  the 
good,  while  the  cowardly  and  ignoble  indul- 
gences of  the  wedded  are  covered  by  the  mantle 
of  respectability  and  the  fiction  which  sanctions 
whatever  is  customary  or  legal,  though  it  be 
robbery  and  murder. 

The  weakness  which  attacks  our  weakness  is 
more  to  be  dreaded  than  the  strength  which 
challenges  us  our  strength. 

Since  thou  canst  become  able  to  do  whatever 
thou  canst  accustom  thyself  to  do,  occupy  thy- 
self habitually  with  the  best  things. 

All  things  are  brought  into  relief  by  contrast 
—  truth  by  error,  religion  by  impiety,  intelli- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  43 

gence.  by  ignorance ;  and  where  this  opposition 
is  not  found  the  tendency  is  to  lower  and  lower 
levels.  What  but  depravity  can  arouse  and  sus- 
tain enthusiasm  for  good?  How  should  the 
heart  be  stirred  to  sympathy  and  beneficence  if 
there  were  no  poverty  and  wretchedness  ?  What 
but  unbelief  and  indifference  can  awaken  and 
keep  alive  zeal  for  the  conversion  and  reforma- 
tion of  men?  Be  not  discouraged  then  by  the 
evil  which  is  everywhere  around  thee,  but  know 
that  it  exists  to  urge  thee  to  a  more  human,  a 
more  godlike  life. 

For  whole  days  no  illumining  thought  smiles 
on  me,  like  a  star  from  the  bosom  of  darkness, 
and  when  I  turn  to  the  words  of  the  great 
masters  they  seem  to  be  flat  and  unprofitable. 
This  is  doubtless  the  settled  state  of  all  who  are 
indifferent  to  the  things  of  the  spirit.  They 
have  ears  and  hear  not;  eyes  and  see  not.  To 
such  as  they  the  Saviour  spoke,  foreseeing  that 
the  heavenly  seed  would  not  take  root  and  bear 
fruit.  No  divine  persuasiveness,  no  miraculous 
power  can  startle  them  from  out  the  lethargy 
in  which  matter  has  steeped  their  souls. 

One's  own  experience  is  the  sole  means 
whereby  he  can  determine  for  himself  whether 
a  thing  be  true  or  useful  or  delectable  or  beau- 
tiful. This  applies  to  mathematical  truth  as  to 


44  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

the  deliciousness  of  fruit  and  the  fragrance  of 
flowers.  Without  experience  there  is  no  knowl- 
edge, since  the  primal  element  in  thought  is 
feeling,  which  is  experience.  If  one  know 
what  he  has  not  felt,  accepting  it  on  trust,  his 
knowledge  is  real  only  in  so  far  as  his  faith  is 
grounded  on  experience.  They  who  have  not 
suffered  are  ignorant,  because  the  deepest  wis- 
dom is  brought  home  to  us  through  experience, 
not  of  what  is  pleasant,  but  of  what  hurts  and 
drives  us  back  on  ourselves  and  God.  No  one 
is  great  in  mind  or  character  who  has  not 
greatly  endured,  because  endurance  is  the  chosen 
school  of  experience.  They  who  are  unwilling 
or  unable  to  bear  are  unwilling  or  unable  to 
learn.  They  who  have  a  rich  experience  of 
small  things,  investigating,  weighing,  compar- 
ing, and  doing  them,  with  all  care  and  serious- 
ness, are  made  wise  and  strong,  because  life  is 
made  up  of  minutes  and  minutiae,  which  seem 
not  worth  considering,  but  which  if  rightly 
taken  issue  in  incredible  power  and  repose. 

Consistency  is  a  virtue  of  the  unprogressive. 

Contentment  with  one's  self  is  harmful;  but 
to  be  content  with  what  one  possesses  is  often 
the  surest  sign  of  wisdom. 

"  Why,"  asks  Scipio,  "  shouldst  thou  desire 
to  be  known  to  posterity,  since  thou  art  un- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  45 

known  to  those  who  died  before  thy  birth,  who 
are  neither  less  numerous  nor  less  worthy?" 
But  may  not  one  believe  that  the  noble  dead 
still  have  consciousness  of  the  spirits  akin  to 
their  own  who  yet  strive  on  earth?  Or  if  not 
so,  is  there  not  all  the  stronger  motive  to  make 
one's  self  a  man  and  do  deeds  which  shall  be 
remembered  by  those  who  follow? 

As  an  individual  turns  from  his  defects  and 
exaggerates  his  qualities,  so  does  an  age.  In 
the  most  barbarous  the  belief  has  prevailed  that 
they  were  enlightened;  and  a  few  hundred 
years  hence,  historians  may  prove  that  the 
nineteenth  century  was  an  epoch  of  decadence 
in  which  man's  higher  powers,  his  imagination, 
his  conscience,  his  will,  even  his  intellect  de- 
clined from  the  vigor  of  happier  times. 

Strong  minds  cannot  long  continue  in  medi- 
tation, and  the  many  are  incapable  of  serious 
thought.  Hence  spiritual  truth  which  moulds 
our  life  only  when  it  is  wrought  into  our 
being  by  our  own  self-activity  has  but  slight 
hold  on  the  masses,  who  are  swayed  and  domi- 
nated by  interests  and  passions  which  concern 
their  present  existence  alone.  If  they  are  to  be 
brought  under  the  influence  of  ideal  aims  and 
ends,  these  ideals  must  be  associated  with  their 
practical  affairs.  If  they  are  to  be  religious, 


46  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

they  must  be  made  to  feel  that  in  religion  they 
shall  find  comfort  and  strength,  peace  and  joy, 
hope  and  courage  —  effectual  help  in  doing  the 
things  which  now  occupy  them.  Their  religion 
must  ally  itself  therefore  with  their  love  of 
home,  of  country,  of  property,  of  security,  of 
health  of  mind  and  body. 

As  we  believe  those  who  tell  us  what  they 
have  seen  in  their  travels,  so  we  believe  in  a 
more  living  way  those  who  tell  us  what  patient 
study  and  meditation  have  revealed  to  them. 
Thus  a  few  lead  the  whole  world  to  accept  as 
masterpieces  the  great  works  of  art,  poetry, 
philosophy,  and  science. 

One  should  be  willing  to  see  his  foes  and 
rivals  surpass  him,  if  only  he  be  enabled  thereby 
to  rise  above  all  envious  thoughts. 

No  one  can  teach  or  govern  or  influence  man 
or  beast  in  a  wholesome  way  unless  he  take 
interest  in  his  work  and  love  the  good  his  labors 
produce. 

If  thou  art  prevented  from  doing  the  thing 
thou  hast  proposed,  do  some  better  thing. 

If  the  best  is  thine  —  faith  in  God  and  in  the 
worth  of  life,  wisdom  and  knowledge,  courage 
and  patience,  goodness  and  love  of  truth,  —  it 
is  impossible  thou  shouldst  envy  another  his 
possessions. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  47 

Greed  and  sensuality  undermine  self-respect, 
because  each  one  feels  that  the  spirit  of  man  is 
superior  to  matter  and  becomes  ignoble  when  it 
suffers  itself  to  be  cowed  and  enslaved  by  what 
is  external. 

The  dissolute  and  abandoned,  who  are  accus- 
tomed to  insult  and  outrage,  become  insensible 
to  such  treatment,  but  may  be  touched  and  helped 
when  approached  in  the  spirit  of  sympathy  and 
loving-kindness. 

Should  one  who  fills  us  with  admiration  and 
reverence  reveal  himself  as  a  liar,  a  lecher,  or  a 
thief,  the  blow  would  be  felt  as  more  painful 
than  if  a  friend  whose  approach  we  had  greeted 
with  unfeigned  joy  should,  as  we  stretch  a  hand 
to  welcome  him,  make  a  brutal  assault  upon  us. 

When  we  dissect  the  body,  laying  bare  its 
whole  muscular,  nervous,  and  bony  tissue,  and 
exposing  to  view  all  the  vital  organs,  it  becomes 
a  thing  hideous,  loathsome,  and  dead.  Now  this 
is  what  our  processes  of  analysis  do  for  knowl- 
edge and  faith;  and  when  all  has  been  taken 
apart  or  dissolved  into  abstractions,  the  mind, 
like  the  dissected  body,  becomes  a  chaos,  where 
nothing  seems  supreme  but  confusion. 

To  make  perpetual  vows  under  the  influence 
of  passionate  love  is  as  irrational  as  to  assume 
lasting  obligations  in  a  state  of  drunkenness. 


48  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

If  our  pity,  our  sympathy,  were  doubly  as 
strong,  they  would  make  life  unbearable. 

To  give  money  is  an  act  of  doubtful  morality, 
for  giving  tends  rather  to  harm  than  to  improve 
the  receiver.  The  most  it  were  wise  to  do  is  to 
care  for  those  whom  not  even  necessity  can  drive 
to  self-help. 

We  know  of  the  world  and  even  of  our  most 
intimate  friends  only  the  impressions  they  make 
upon  us. 

The  mystery  in  which  each  separate  thing  is 
involved  is  the  same  that  veils  the  universe  of 
which  it  is  part.  We  comprehend  neither  sub- 
ject nor  object. 

Live  not  to  enjoy,  but  to  improve  thyself,  and 
it  shall  be  well  with  thee. 

Give  to  me,  O  God,  the  good  which  is  Thyself, 
which  the  more  it  is  communicated,  the  more 
all-sufficient  it  is  felt  to  be ;  and  teach  me  not  to 
set  my  heart  on  aught  which  can  be  mine  only 
at  another's  cost. 

Freedom  is  better  than  success;  yet  hardly 
shall  we  find  one  who  is  not  ready  to  barter 
liberty  for  place. 

Once  we  realize  that  the  human  race,  in  its 
visible  manifestation  at  least,  is  ephemeral,  as 
evanescent  as  the  extinct  species  of  past  geo- 
logic epochs,  we  are  fatally  driven  by  the  spirit 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  49 

which  is  a  man's  self  into  unseen  worlds  where 
what  is  true  and  good  and  fair  abides  forever, 
though  the  panoramic  universe  vanish  utterly. 

Since  it  is  possible  to  find  happiness  in  loving 
wife  and  children  and  friends,  whether  or  not 
we  believe  them  to  be  immortal,  why  may  we 
not  attain  the  good  of  life  in  loving  the  human 
race,  though  we  are  certain  it  shall  wholly  dis- 
appear? Reply  without  fear  that  the  happiness 
born  of  the  love  of  what  is  transitory  is  but  a 
sort  of  comfortableness,  which  is  for  the  mo- 
ment and  without  power  to  still  the  thoughts 
and  yearnings  that  wander  through  eternity  and 
are  the  utterance  of  man's  true  and  inmost 
being. 

The  love  of  children  for  parents,  of  brothers 
and  sisters  for  one  another,  is  due  to  habits  of 
intimacy  and  helpfulness,  and  not  to  ties  of 
blood.  This  is  seen  in  the  case  of  those  who, 
adopted  in  infancy,  have  been  brought  up  in  the 
belief  that  their  foster  parents  were  their  fathers 
and  mothers,  or  that  they  were  brothers  and 
sisters,  when,  in  fact,  they  were  not  akin.  The 
love  then,  which  above  all  other  we  persuade 
ourselves  springs  from  natural  affinity,  is  but 
a  thing  of  custom. 

Even  the  fearless  may  be  overcome  by  terror, 
as  they  may  be  struck  helpless  by  sword  or  shell. 

4 


50  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

The  things  and  persons  that  provoke  and 
annoy  us  are  but  occasions.  The  cause  lies  in 
our  weakness  and  selfishness. 

The  happiness  of  the  young  is  made  possible 
by  their  ignorance  of  the  miseries  of  life,  of  the 
indifference,  cruelty,  and  injustice  of  the  world 
—  an  ignorance  which  instruction  is  powerless 
to  destroy,  which  in  the  noblest,  experience  itself 
fails  to  dispel. 

Thou  art  able  to  do  good  to  whomever  thou 
livest  with  in  daily  intercourse.  Whether  to 
others  thou  canst  hardly  know. 

Let  the  attitude  of  others  toward  thee  have 
little  influence  on  thy  conduct.  Thy  desire  is  to 
act  in  obedience  to  eternal  laws,  to  do  perma- 
nent good,  and  why  shouldst  thou  be  turned 
aside  by  the  ignorance  or  the  prejudice  of  those 
who  would  hinder  thee?  If  thou  art  a  real 
man,  the  lowlier  the  place  the  greater  the 
opportunity. 

The  most  generous  deed  arouses  little  enthu- 
siasm, when  it  is,  by  implication  even,  an  appeal 
to  ourselves  to  be  generous. 

How  easily  even  the  good  become  criminal 
when  they  are  persuaded  that  nothing  but  crime 
can  procure  what  they  intensely  desire  or  save 
them  from  what  they  greatly  dread! 

Whoever   can   influence   men   should    strive 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  51 

to  make  them  courageous,  enduring,  hopeful, 
simple,  self-active,  chaste. 

The  man  and  the  woman  attract  each  other, 
but  unless  they  are  drawn  and  held  by  some 
higher  and  more  stable  force  than  sexual  pas- 
sion, they  soon  find  that  to  be  bound  in  wedlock 
is  to  be  enslaved. 

Woman's  deepest  and  tenderest  love  is  wholly 
removed  from  sensual  thoughts.  It  is  the  love 
mothers  give  to  their  children,  daughters  to 
fathers,  the  best  and  the  noblest  to  the  men 
they  admire,  trust,  and  adore. 

Whatever  helps  us  to  turn  from  ease  and 
pleasure,  and  to  submit  to  labor  and  self-denial, 
whether  it  be  the  love  of  money,  or  of  reputa- 
tion, or  of  culture,  or  of  virtue,  is  wholesome 
and  good.  The  love  of  excellence  and  power  is 
human;  enslavement  to  appetite  and  instinct  is 
brutish. 

The  sage  and  the  saint  pass  unnoticed;  the 
rich  and  the  high-placed  awaken  envious 
thoughts. 

As  a  small  room  may  be  more  full  of  comfort 
and  joy  than  a  palace,  so  he  who  in  obscurity 
lives  for  truth  and  love  is  more  blessed  than 
one  who  lacking  inner  freedom  and  light  is 
applauded  by  thousands. 
,  God's  will  is  the  welfare  and  salvation  of 


53  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

mankind.  Human  interests,  therefore,  are 
supreme. 

The  points  of  view  to  which  we  accustom 
ourselves  shape  and  color  so  largely  the  objects 
which  make  the  world  of  consciousness  possible, 
that  it  is  inevitable  men  should  hold,  as  times 
and  circumstances  change,  various  and  even 
opposite  beliefs,  opinions,  and  convictions  con- 
cerning religion,  philosophy,  government,  and 
whatever  else  is  related  to  their  lives.  But  as 
there  are  right  and  wrong  points  of  view,  so 
there  are  true  and  false  opinions,  beliefs,  and 
convictions. 

A  self  is  one  who  exists  and  is  an  object  for 
himself,  who  therefore  is  at  once  subject  and 
object.  The  self  as  object  is  the  self  as  subject, 
reinforced  and  transformed  by  all  that  one 
knows,  desires,  loves,  or  hates  —  by  the  totality 
of  the  experience  which  is  made  possible  by  the 
external  world,  but  which  as  experience  is  part 
of  the  inner  life.  It  is  this  that  makes  self- 
education  feasible. 

The  uniformity  of  nature  is  uniformity  of 
experience. 

One  would  not  wish  to  be  an  inanimate  object, 
however  fair ;  for  if  what  has  no  life  is  of  worth, 
it  is  so  only  for  the  living.  One  would  not  wish 
to  be  a  flower,  however  beautiful  or  fragrant; 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  53 

for  it  can  be  beautiful  or  fragrant  only  for  those 
who  have  senses.  One  would  not  wish  to  be  a 
mere  animal,  however  noble  or  strong,  for  what- 
ever its  courage  or  strength  it  cannot  be  con- 
scious of  the  possession  of  its  qualities.  It  is 
consciousness,  then,  that  gives  value,  and  in  a 
world  in  which  there  should  be  no  conscious 
being,  there  could  be  no  truth,  no  goodness,  no 
beauty. 

Since  to  be  a  man  is  to  think  and  love,  they 
who  think  and  love  the  highest  things  are  the 
best.  The  objection  may  be  opposed  that  to  be 
a  man  one  must  eat  and  drink,  and  that  they 
who  eat  and  drink  the  best  things  are  the  best. 
Yes,  if  the  ideal  be  eating  and  drinking,  and 
the  perfect  good  be  found  in  the  indulgence  of 
appetite.  But  to  hold  this  is  to  believe  animality 
better  than  humanity,  digestion  than  emotion, 
desire  than  love,  instinct  than  reason. 

It  is  God's  world.  He  takes  care  of  it,  and  He 
has  made  me  that  I  too  may  have  share  in  the 
divine  work,  even  as  the  slightest  atom  has  its 
place  in  the  harmony  of  the  universe. 

The  vast  voraciousness  of  mankind  is  appall- 
ing to  one  whose  faith  is  spiritual.  The  plains 
and  the  seas,  the  forests  and  the  heavens  do  not 
suffice  to  satisfy  appetites,  which  the  more  they 
are  indulged  the  more  clamorous  they  become. 


54  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Men  when  hungry  are  as  ravenous  as  beasts  of 
prey.  They  rob,  they  murder,  they  burn  cities, 
they  lay  waste  whole  regions;  and  when  they 
are  satiated  they  set  about  getting  more  savory 
divShes,  more  delicious  wines.  If  their  stomachs 
urge  them  on,  poverty,  shame,  and  disease  have 
no  terrors  for  them.  Feed  them  and  give  them 
copious  drink  and  they  are  your  slaves.  Ask 
them  to  abstain,  and  though  you  promise  the 
divinest  joys  that  may  be  born  of  high  thoughts 
and  exalted  emotions,  they  will  hate  and  revile 
you. 

To  think  and  love  is  life;  to  see,  to  hear,  to 
taste,  to  digest,  to  excrete,  is  but  existence. 
They  who  think  are  the  only  noblemen  and 
lords.  They  are  the  masters  of  all  they  know, 
have  overcome  whatever  they  understand.  They 
dwell  apart  in  a  kingdom  of  their  own,  where 
they  lead  the  life  of  immortals,  occupying  them- 
selves with  the  things  that  are  eternal,  loving 
the  beauty  which  is  fadeless  and  everduring. 

Sight  and  hearing  are  nobler  senses  than 
touch,  more  intimately  related  to  intellectual 
and  social  life,  but  they  fail  to  create  the  con- 
viction of  reality  which  is  born  of  contact  and 
palpation.  They  make  us  victims  of  hallucina- 
tion. Visionary  means  fanciful,  dreamlike,  un- 
substantial; and  delusion  lurks  in  sound,  which 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  55 

distracts,  takes  captive,  and  leads  astray.  But 
what  we  grasp  and  firmly  hold  we  cannot  doubt 
to  be  real  more  than  we  can  doubt  the  reality  of 
our  existence.  If,  however,  by  analysis  or  other 
process,  we  strive  to  get  at  the  essence  of  things, 
what  we  touch,  no  less  than  what  we  see  and 
hear,  dissolves  and  vanishes,  becoming,  if  con- 
sidered subjectively,  but  sensation;  if  objec- 
tively, but  appearance. 

Experience  cannot  transcend  itself,  and  if  it 
seem  to  do  so,  a  deeper  view  shows  such  tran- 
scendence to  be  in  reality  immanence.  If  we 
find  not  God  within  ourselves  we  shall  find 
Him  nowhere. 

The  adage,  What  we  do  not  know  we  can- 
not crave,  is  true;  but  it  is  also  .true  that  the 
objects  of  experience  are  primarily  objects  of 
desire  or  aversion  rather  than  objects  of  knowl- 
edge. They  are  first  presented  to  us  as  things 
interesting  and  serviceable  or  indifferent  and 
harmful ;  and  the  fact  that  they  must  therefore 
be  intelligible  is  implied,  not  affirmed,  in  con- 
sciousness. Hence,  if  teaching  is  not  to  be 
without  effect,  a  longing  for  the  things  which 
education  promises  to  give  must  be  awakened 
in  the  pupil.  More  than  knowledge  must  be  held 
out  to  him;  and  vulgar  success  cannot  be  pror- 
posed,  unless  we  wish  to  blight  what  is  finest  and 


56  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

fairest  in  him.  The  love  of  knowledge  for  its 
own  sake  can  be  but  the  final  result  of  the  best 
culture,  and  to  lure  the  young  with  the  hope 
of  money  or  office  is  to  lead  them  astray.  The 
end  of  life  is  not  thought,  but  thought  fulfilling 
itself  in  right  deeds.  Hence  the  teacher,  if  he 
is  an  educator,  must  bring  his  pupils  to  realize 
that  the  faculties  which  nothing  but  education 
can  produce  are  indispensable  to  the  best  life 
without  which  the  highest  joy  and  blessedness 
is  impossible. 

Education  is  not  a  product:  it  is  a  process; 
and  the  universal  failure  of  schools  is  attribut- 
able chiefly  to  the  persuasion  of  teachers  that 
their  business  is  to  turn  out  products,  and  not 
to  start,  stimulate,  and  direct  processes  of  self- 
activity  which  shall  continue  as  long  as  life. 

How  easily  the  poet,  the  philosopher,  and  the 
saint  pass  beyond  the  confines  of  the  world  of 
things  palpable  and  scientifically  demonstrable, 
into  the  presence  of  the  eternal  and  absolute, 
where,  as  in  their  proper  home,  they  dream, 
love,  and  adore. 

Neither  knowledge  nor  nescience  is  absolute. 
They  are  correlative  and  interfused.  We  do  not 
know  the  whole  of  anything;  and  since  what- 
ever is,  is  intelligible,  there  is  nothing  of  which 
we  do  not  know  something,  if  only  this,  that  to 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  tf 

be  at  all,  it  must  be  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of 
mind.  What  cannot  be  known  cannot  and  does 
not  exist.  All  faith,  hope,  and  love  rest,  how- 
ever vaguely,  on  a  basis  of  knowledge.  Were  it 
possible  to  be  conscious  at  all  of  what  can  in  no 
way  be  known,  the  attitude  of  reason  toward 
such  a  being  would  be  that  of  infinite  indiffer- 
ence and  aloofness. 

He  who  exacts  even  love  for  love  does  not 
love ;  for  true  love  gives  all  and  asks  nothing  in 
return  but  the  privilege  and  blessedness  of  lov- 
ing. If  I  know  and  love  the  best,  it  matters 
little  whether  the  best  know  and  love  me;  but 
if  I  know  and  love  God,  it  is  because  He  knows 
and  loves  me. 

The  power  to  interest  permanently  lies  not  in 
things,  but  in  persons — in  their  faith  and  knowl- 
edge, their  hopes  and  fears,  their  efforts,  suc- 
cesses, and  failures,  their  courage  and  love.  This 
is  what  the  highest  art  bodies  forth ;  this  is  what 
the  poet  sings,  the  orator  proclaims,  the  painter 
portrays,  the  historian  recounts,  the  story-writer 
tells.  This  is  the  theme  of  conversation  when- 
ever the  divine  awakens  within  us  and  the  soul 
has  free  utterance.  Facts  and  laws  are  as  mo- 
notonous as  sleep,  as  heavy  as  eating  and  drink- 
ing. We  are  spirits,  and  what  delights  us  is  the 
spirit's  play. 


58  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

To  know  is  higher  than  to  feel;  to  do  right 
is  higher  than  to  know;  and  to  compel  feeling, 
knowledge,  and  conduct  into  the  service  of  the 
soul,  as  through  faith,  hope,  and  love,  it  strug- 
gles God  ward,  is  the  highest  within  man's 
reach. 

I  seek  a  principle  which  shall  reconcile  me  to 
all  things;  a  principle  which  shall  enable  me  to 
accept  evil  as  I  accept  good,  and  to  be  content 
whatever  befall.  I  can  find  but  this :  whatever 
happens,  through  whatever  agencies,  happens  by 
the  will  or  the  permission  of  God,  who  creates 
me,  knows  me,  has  care  of  me;  and  who,  since 
He  is  all-wise  and  all-loving,  will  not  permit 
me  to  suffer  loss  or  harm  unless  it  be  that  I  may 
find  richer  gain  or  higher  good. 

God  is  with  each  one,  whether  or  not  he  seek 
and  know  Him,  trust  and  love  Him.  As  man's 
thought  does  not  create  Him,  it  is  powerless  to 
restrain  or  abolish  His  action  in  the  world. 
They  who  deny  His  being  confess  that  being 
when  they  utter  truth,  believe  in  right,  and  fol- 
low after  goodness.  If  they  rise  to  heaven,  He 
is  there ;  if  they  sink  to  the  depths  of  hell,  He  is 
there.  He  is  greater  than  our  knowledge  of 
Him:  greater  than  our  faith  or  hope  or  love 
can  intimate,  and  to  think  to  limit  His  power 
and  goodness  is  to  blaspheme.  What  we  know 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  59 

best  is  our  own  ignorance  and  unworthiness ; 
and  here  too  our  thoughts  are  not  God's 
thoughts. 

Since  what  I  am  I  have  become  why  shall  I 
not  hope  still  to  grow  Godward? 

Be  persuaded  that  whatever  truth  or  virtue 
is  any  man's  may  be  thine. 

Had  I  the  fame  of  Plato  or  Shakespeare  I 
should  deem  it  no  benefit  unless  I  could  account 
it  the  approval  of  God. 

Wisdom  is  not  born  of  learning,  but  may  be 
found  in  simple  minds;  while  they  who  know 
many  things  often  lack  judgment  and  sanity. 

Nature  is  God's  manifest  and  universal  fact; 
to  contemn  it  is  blasphemy  not  less  than  folly. 

Courage,  strength,  virility  win  not  admiration 
merely,  but  love  —  the  love  not  of  women  only 
but  of  men  as  well. 

True  lovers  of  peace  find  it  easy  to  live  in 
peace  with  their  fellow-men.  By  their  very 
bearing  and  temper  they  disarm  foes,  silence 
the  envious,  and  shame  the  contentious  and 
turbulent  into  acquiescence. 

So  long  as  one  is  able  to  inspire  hope  and 
courage,  so  long  is  it  a  joy  for  him  to  be  alive. 

The  saddest  is  not  the  loss  of  hope,  but  the 
loss  of  the  power  to  desire  aught  —  to  feel  that 
there  is  nothing  any  human  being  might  say  or 


60  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

do,  which  could  stir  within  us  even  a  momentary 
thrill  of  pleasure. 

It  may  be  thought  that  if  our  belief  in  the 
immortality  of  the  soul  were  real,  we  should 
not  grieve  when  death  takes  those  we  love.  But 
we  sorrow  when  they  leave  us  to  dwell  in  other 
lands,  though  we  are  certain  that  there  also  they 
shall  be  alive.  The  father  suffers  when  his 
daughter  quits  his  home  to  follow  the  man  she 
has  wedded,  though  he  knows  that  she  has 
found  happiness.  To  part  from  those  who  are 
dear  is  pain  even  when  we  feel  the  separation 
is  for  their  good.  We  pity  our  friends  who  die 
less  than  ourselves  for  being  deprived  of  the 
cheer  and  comfort  they  gave.  Death  is  sad 
because  life  is  sweet;  and  it  would  still  be  sad 
could  we  have  positive  proof  that  the  dead  re- 
live in  better  worlds. 

Unless  one  be  a  child  or  a  savage,  a  youth 
or  a  barbarian,  it  is  not  possible  to  take  pleasure 
in  what  gives  pain  to  any  living  thing. 

Avarice  is  a  passion  of  those  who,  doubting 
the  reality  of  the  spiritual  world,  incapable  of 
love  or  devotion,  and  distrusting  their  own  souls, 
clutch  matter  and  hold  to  it  unto  death  with  the 
grip  of  despair. 

In  childhood  and  youth  we  look  to  a  father 
or  a  mother  to  reassure  and  comfort  us  in  our 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  6 1 

doubts  and  sorrows,  feeling  certain  that  they 
have  the  will,  the  knowledge,  and  the  ability  to 
guide  and  protect  us.  As  we  advance  in  years 
we  still  turn  to  some  one  in  whom  we  believe 
there  is  superior  strength,  wisdom,  and  good- 
ness. The  disciple  follows  the  master,  the 
soldier,  his  captain.  Most  of  our  beliefs  and 
opinions  rest  on  the  authority  of  those  whom 
we  hold  to  be  wise  and  good;  and  when  we 
have  attained  best  insight  we  put  our  whole 
trust  in  God,  in  His  love  and  mercy  and  tender 
care,  throwing  all  our  weight  of  sin  and  woe  on 
Him  who  makes  and  saves  us,  and  will  not  suffer 
us  to  perish  utterly. 

Weeping  and  lamentation  are  of  no  avail; 
and  are  therefore  meaningless  and  idle.  The 
worst  misfortunes  are  endurable,  if  we  but 
have  strength  of  mind  and  put  our  trust  in 
God. 

As  there  are  animals  which  habit  makes  able 
to  see  in  the  dark,  so  long  and  patient  medita- 
tion gives  the  power  to  see  clear  where  others 
are  blind. 

If  one  could  have  the  boundless  devotion 
which  the  purest  and  most  loving  souls  have 
given  to  the  Saviour,  but  should  himself  be 
false  and  base,  the  worship  of  the  world  would 
leave  him  miserable. 


62  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

The  pretentious  are  necessarily  ridiculous. 

The  larger  the  world  we  consciously  live  in, 
the  greater  our  freedom  and  tranquillity. 

One  is  not  better  for  belonging  to  a  power- 
ful family  or  nation;  but  he  has  greater 
opportunities. 

One  may  become  indifferent  to  praise,  but 
hardly  to  the  voice  of  the  faultfinder. 

The  good  are  content  when  they  do  good  and 
are  not  troubled  because  the  credit  is  given  to 
others. 

What  we  have  grown  accustomed  to  does  not 
appear  to  us  to  be  ridiculous  or  absurd,  though 
it  often  is  so. 

The  race  exists  for  the  individual :  the  indi- 
vidual for  the  race  only  in  so  far  as  it  is  the 
indispensable  means  of  producing  personalities 
—  the  final  end  of  the  universe  which  is  the 
work  of  a  supreme  Person. 

The  creative  minds  who  live  in  literature  are 
neither  young  nor  old.  They  are  forever  in 
their  prime,  safe  harbored  from  the  follies  of 
youth,  the  decrepitude  of  age,  and  all  the  acci- 
dents of  disaster-working  time.  They  stand  on 
the  threshold  of  the  centuries,  to  welcome  the 
noblest  and  the  best,  as,  from  generation  to 
generation,  they  step  forth  to  play  their  parts 
on  life's  stage. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  63 

At  times  the  weight  of  years  seems  to  drop 
from  me  and  again  I  stand  with  a  boy's  eager 
and  all-hoping  heart  beneath  the  azure  sky  of 
May,  while  the  companions  of  my  youth  spring 
from  the  earth  like  flowers  to  fill  the  world  with 
light  and  joy.  But  when  awakening  as  from  a 
dream  I  see  that  the  leaves  have  fallen,  that 
the  birds  have  flown,  that  the  friends  of  other 
days  have  departed,  my  heart  turns  to  God, 
to  the  eternal  fountain  of  everduring  life  and 
love. 

Can  there  be  worse  folly  than  to  sacrifice 
freedom,  peace  of  mind,  opportunity  to  live 
within  and  to  grow  godlike,  that  one  may  get 
a  title  or  live  in  splendor  and  luxury?  Not  for 
this,  it  may  be  said,  but  for  greater  power  to  be 
of  help.  Never  yet,  alas !  has  this  been  the  true 
motive  of  vain  and  ambitious  men,  who,  whether 
they  have  acted  in  the  name  of  religion  or  of 
patriotism,  have  still  sought  themselves. 

The  questions  which  concern  a  man  as  a 
member  of  whatever  social  organism  are  super- 
ficial and  uninteresting,  in  comparison  with 
those  which  touch  the  root  of  his  being  and  relate 
him  to  God  and  eternal  things. 

So  to  live,  so  to  utter  one's  life  in  words  and 
deeds,  as  to  be  borne  from  generation  to  gener- 
ation, in  the  grateful  memories,  in  the  admiring 


64  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

and  loving  thoughts  of  the  wisest  and  best,  is 
to  have  an  unending  triumph,  is  the  only  right 
apotheosis. 

The  young  walk  in  the  midst  of  the  many- 
tinted,  rich-glowing  clouds  of  Illusion,  which, 
as  experience  and  insight  increase,  lose  their 
bright  colors  and  at  last  turn  ashen  gray.  But 
the  noblest  souls,  though  they  see  the  beauty 
and  the  glory  fade,  lose  nor  heart  nor  hope,  but 
gird  themselves  for  more  heroic  strivings  to 
attain  the  divine  reality,  of  which  they  feel  these 
early  visions  were  but  shadows. 

It  saddens  to  think  of  the  poverty,  discom- 
forts, and  hardships  of  millions  of  human 
beings;  but  their  real  misery  lies  in  their  igno- 
rance, sensuality,  cowardice,  and  selfishness,  in 
their  indifference  to  the  things  of  the  soul,  in 
their  lack  of  love. 

Untoward  happenings  are  changed  to  good 
fortune  when  they  teach  courage,  forbearance, 
and  wisdom. 

One  who  is  wholly  in  earnest  in  the  persever- 
ing pursuit  of  any  worthy  object  can  never  be 
commonplace. 

Unless  I  may  learn  of  thee  or  teach  thee  wis- 
dom and  virtue,  I  care  not  for  thy  company. 

Though  divinity  and  immortality  were,  like 
the  words  themselves,  but  abstractions,  it  would 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH,  65 

still  be  the  highest  wisdom  to  live  for  God  and 
life  everlasting. 

Whatever  hinders  or  distracts  from  the  di- 
vine work  of  purifying  the  soul  and  laboring 
with  all  one's  strength  to  be  of  help,  is  calamity. 
Throw  the  whole  stress  of  thy  life  on  the  inner 
self. 

"  And  to  you,  Verus,  what  seems  the  noblest 
end  of  life?"  Quietly  and  gravely  he  replied, 
"  The  imitation  of  God." 

The  chief  end  of  study  is  the  learning  to 
think,  and  the  best  books  therefore  are  those 
which  most  effectually  impel  to  exercise  of 
mind. 

As  the  sense  of  the  worth  and  sacredness 
of  life  diminishes,  men  abandon  themselves  to 
selfish  impulses,  to  the  pursuit  of  wealth  or 
pleasure,  looking  on  all  else  as  illusory.  They 
become  hard  or  sensual,  incapable  of  conceiv- 
ing or  of  cherishing  noble  purposes  or  ideal 
aims.  Hence  an  age  in  which  the  sense  of  the 
worth  and  sacredness  of  life  is  failing  is  deca- 
dent, however  great  the  material  prosperity  and 
progress. 

In  true  workers  method  and  order  are  econo- 
mies of  time.  But  they  also  help  the  idle  to 
persuade  themselves  that  the  void  and  vacancy 
of  their  lives  are  filled ;  for  those  who  are  busy 
5 


66  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

doing  useless  things  easily  imagine,  if  they  have 
method  and  order,  that  they  are  occupied  with 
what  is  worth  while. 

Great  souls  cannot  content  themselves  with 
trifles,  but  turn  from  what  is  ephemeral  or 
nugatory  to  the  unseen  world,  where  all  is 
enduring  and  real.  They  look  away  from  the 
present  in  which  children  and  the  unthinking 
live,  to  the  future,  and  strive  to  have  thoughts 
and  do  deeds  worthy  of  immortal  beings. 


III. 

THE  love  of  repose,  of  order,  of  a  uniform 
and  even  course  of  life  would  seem  to 
spring  from  a  rational  and  virtuous  disposition, 
but  it  is  often  a  result  of  sloth  and  selfishness, 
or  of  timidity  and  cowardice ;  and  it  may  there- 
fore be  found  in  those  who  seek  their  ease  and 
comfort  at  whatever  cost,  who  if  they  are  too 
indifferent  to  hate,  are  too  indolent  to  help. 
They  will  not  trouble  themselves  to  right 
wrongs  or  prevent  ills,  but  suffer  things  to 
take  their  way.  They  little  care  what  happens 
if  only  they  be  not  disturbed.  They  are  in- 
capable of  generous  emotions  and  are  without 
noble  impulses.  If  they  are  clothed  with  au- 
thority they  correct  no  abuses,  oppose  no  ob- 
stacles to  the  downward  tendency  of  the  many 
when  left  to  themselves.  They  ignore  the  cor- 
ruption which  gives  them  no  annoyance;  and 
if  it  be  urged  on  their  attention,  they  consider 
those  who  denounce  it  as  officious  or  imperti- 
nent. They  would  be  thought  wise  and  able  for 
doing  nothing,  and  they  hold  in  slight  esteem 


68  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

the  active,  energetic,  and  zealous,  whose  ex- 
ample is  a  rebuke  to  their  own  lethargy  and 
inertness.  This  self-indulgent  weakness  and 
love  of  ease  in  the  men  who  govern,  whether 
in  Church  or  State,  has  wrought  greater  ruin 
than  the  scoffings  of  infidels  and  the  scandals 
of  the  vicious:  for  all  understand  that  unbe- 
lievers will  mock  and  that  scandals  must  be; 
but  that  they  who  are  placed  as  guardians  over 
treasures  of  infinite  price  should  fall  asleep  and 
slumber  on  while  thieves  break  in  and  steal 
seems  a  thing  monstrous  and  incredible  to  those 
who  have  faith  in  God  and  the  soul.  When  the 
weak  and  careless  are  appointed  to  do  what  only 
the  strong  and  vigilant  can  perform,  confusion 
or  ruin  is  inevitable. 

When  work  has  become  a  habit  one  is  lost 
without  it,  as  the  drunkard  without  his  dram, 
the  gambler  without  his  game. 

The  divinest  things  —  religion,  love,  truth, 
beauty,  justice  —  seem  to  lose  their  meaning 
and  value  when  we  sink  into  lassitude  and  in- 
difference. In  such  mental  state  we,  together 
with  what  is  not  ourselves,  verge  in  conscious- 
ness toward  the  confines  where  all  that  is  or 
has  been  or  can  be  appears  shadowy  and  un- 
substantial. It  is  a  state  altogether  different 
from  that  of  the  callous  and  dull,  who  have  no 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  69 

perception  of  spiritual  truth,  no  definite  notions 
of  anything.  It  is  in  fact  not  a  state,  but  a 
passing  obscuration,  a  moral  syncope,  a  tem- 
porary inability  to  think  or  love  or  hope  or 
take  delight  in  aught.  It  is  a  signal  that  we 
should  quit  meditation  and  books,  and  go  out 
into  the  open  air,  into  the  presence  of  nature, 
into  the  company  of  flocks  and  children,  where 
we  may  drink  new  health  and  vigor  from  the 
clear  and  full-flowing  fountains  of  life,  afar 
from  the  arid  wastes  of  theory  and  specula- 
tion; where  we  may  learn  again  that  it  is  not 
by  intellectual  questionings,  but  by  believing, 
hoping,  loving,  and  doing  that  man  finds  joy 
and  peace. 

What  a  man  is  he  has  become.  He  is  born 
wholly  helpless,  incapable  of  surviving  for  even 
a  brief  space  without  the  aid  and  assistance  of 
beings  in  whom  intelligence  has  been  developed ; 
and  what  we  consider  his  natural  endowments 
are  for  the  most  part  products  of  art.  Nothing, 
for  instance,  plays  a  greater  role  in  life  and 
literature  than  the  love  of  man  for  woman  — 
the  mysterious  and  all-absorbing  passion  which 
bribes  or  overpowers  reason,  which  thrusts 
aside  the  usual  motives  that  influence  conduct, 
which  compels  those  whom  it  subdues  to  for- 
get religion,  country,  parents,  and  friends ;  driv- 


7O  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

ing  heroes  to  forego  honor  and  glory,  sages  to 
forsake  wisdom,  saints  to  abandon  God.  This 
strange  fascination,  this  marvellous  attraction, 
is  not,  as  one  might  suppose,  a  thing  of  sex 
and  the  senses :  it  is  romantic,  imaginative, 
poetic;  it  is  all  compact  of  revery  and  fancy; 
it  is  a  product  of  art,  not  of  nature;  a  result 
of  civilization,  not  of  instinct.  It  could  not 
exist  among  savages  who  go  naked.  With 
them  it  is  simply  sexual  desire  little  different 
from  that  found  in  brutes.  It  arises  only  when 
the  body  is  clothed  and  adorned,  habited  in 
mystery,  and  converted  into  a  thing  hidden  and 
sacred,  which  appeals  to  the  imagination  and 
leads  it  to  build,  for  the  divinity  which  itself 
has  created,  a  sanctuary  wherein  it  may  worship 
until  the  winning  of  the  favor  of  the  goddess 
becomes  the  supreme  end  of  life,  wherein  to 
fail  is  to  be  doomed  to  misery.  So  the  beloved 
becomes  at  once  an  ideal  and  an  idol.  But  the 
divine  frenzy  is  born  of  vesture,  of  manner,  of 
artifice,  of  concealment,  and  of  mystery.  Take 
these  away  and  the  madness  is  cured. 

Loosed  the  girdle  and  the  veil, 
All  the  heavenly  dream  grows  pale. 

They  who  are  drawn  together  by  sexual  pas- 
sion or  by  interest  are  not  attracted  by  love, 
but  by  instinct  or  selfishness,  and  when  desire 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  7 1 

has  been  satiated  or  the  advantage  sought  has 
been  gained,  they  separate,  not  without  loath- 
ing or  contempt;  for  it  is  natural  to  despise 
or  hate  those  whom  we  have  made  use  of 
whether  for  gain  or  lust. 

The  most  blissful  moments  are  those  we  pass 
in  adoration,  or  in  writing  the  thoughts  that 
blossom  from  the  roots  of  our  being,  which  dip 
into  infinite  and  everduring  worlds. 

From  nature  we  receive  little  more  than  dis- 
positions. For  the  rest,  what  we  become  is  the 
result  of  circumstances  and  the  co-operation  of 
the  will,  which  is  generally  determined  by  en- 
vironment and  chance  happenings.  All  depends 
on  God's  providence  and  grace,  but  the  ways 
along  which  He  guides  us  are  mysterious  and 
hidden,  even  after  we  have  passed  over  them. 
A  mere  nothing,  whose  import  we  could  not 
have  understood,  would  have  changed  the  whole 
course  of  life  for  any  one  of  us.  Things  light 
as  straws  shape  our  purposes.  If  experience 
teaches  anything,  it  is  that  we  should  keep  our- 
selves free  of  conceit  and  be  slow  to  judge  our 
fellows. 

How  many  submit  to  the  restraints  of  society 
and  comply  with  its  requirements  for  no  other 
reason  than  because  such  a  course  is  safer,  more 
respectable,  and  more  certain  to  lead  to  success ! 


72  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Much  of  our  virtue,  indeed,  is  as  little  part  of 
ourselves  as  are  our  clothes,  and  is  as  easily 
divested  when  the  social  atmosphere  or  the 
moral  climate  changes. 

However  eager  men  be  for  the  contest,  vic- 
tors and  vanquished  alike  quickly  grow  indif- 
ferent once  it  is  over.  In  the  triumph  there  is 
less  joy,  in  the  defeat  less  disappointment  than 
either  could  have  believed  possible.  It  is  so  in 
trials  of  strength  and  skill ;  it  is  so  in  the  great 
struggles  on  which  the  fates  of  armies  and  of 
nations  hang.  The  keenest  delight  is  anticipa- 
tory. When  the  issue  is  decided,  when  what 
had  been  a  possibility  becomes  a  fact,  our  inter- 
est relaxes,  and  we  turn  to  the  undetermined, 
which  gives  free  play  to  the  imagination  and 
an  open  field  to  hope.  So  too  we  find  that  the 
death  of  our  dearest  friends,  the  vanishing  of 
our  most  cherished  illusions,  without  which  life 
had  seemed  to  be  meaningless,  are  not  unbear- 
able. However  great  the  loss,  in  a  boundless 
universe  there  is  always  something  left  to  be- 
lieve, to  strive  for,  and  to  love. 

Whatever  may  be  true  of  the  uneducated,  they 
whose  pursuits  are  intellectual  should  need  no 
other  diversion  or  relaxation  than  they  may  find 
in  their  studies ;  and  they  whose  vocation  obliges 
them  to  deal  with  religious  truth  can  consent  to 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  73 

pass  their  time  at  games  and  other  entertain- 
ments only  when  they  have  lost  faith  in  the 
reality  of  the  spiritual  world. 

Strength,  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral,  is 
desirable,  if  for  no  other  reason,  because  only 
the  strong  can  be  generous,  helpful,  and  mag- 
nanimous. The  weak  shrink  into  themselves, 
nurse  their  sorrows,  emphasize  their  sufferings 
and  wrongs,  and  so  become  complaining,  selfish, 
and  exacting.  They  are  the  centre  of  their 
thoughts  and  indifferent  to  the  interests  of 
others.  They  understand  no  ills  but  their  own. 
If  they  listen  to  pitiful  stories  it  is  that  they 
get  a  keener  relish  for  their  proper  miseries, 
with  which  they  seem  to  be  in  love.  They  are 
without  gratitude  and  are  incapable  of  appre- 
ciating kindnesses.  The  strong,  on  the  con- 
trary, if  they  are  not  brutal,  find  happiness  in 
sharing  their  strength  and  joy.  Their  sym- 
pathies are  deep,  and  they  are  eager  to  make 
others  partakers  of  the  blessings  bestowed  so 
largely  on  themselves. 

Self-love,  in  the  true  sense,  is  the  love  of 
one's  real  good  —  of  truth,  of  virtue,  of  beauty, 
of  God.  It  is  strongest  in  those  who  are  most 
alive  in  their  higher  nature.  It  is  the  opposite 
of  selfish  love,  of  the  love  which  places  the 
chief  good  in  the  things  which  minister  to  the 


74  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

senses  or  nourish  conceit  and  pride,  and  not  in 
what  constitutes  the  proper  worth  and  joy  of 
life. 

Why  should  I  desire  that  others  think  as  I, 
that  they  take  interest  in  what  interests  me? 
If  all  were  of  one  mind,  if  all  had  the  same 
tastes,  life  would  be  less  interesting  than  it  is; 
and  then  it  is  plain  that  they  who  have  not  my 
experience  cannot  have  my  thoughts,  that  they 
who  have  not  my  character  cannot  have  my 
tastes.  Nevertheless  I  would  bring  others  to 
accept  the  truth  I  know,  to  admire  and  follow 
the  beauty  and  goodness  which  I  see;  and  this 
yearning  springs  from  what  is  best  within  me, 
from  God's  presence  in  my  soul,  impelling  me 
to  reveal  to  my  brothers  Him  who  is  truth, 
beauty,  and  goodness. 

The  power  which  habit  has  over  us  is  shown 
in  the  fact  that  the  things  we  become  accus- 
tomed to  in  our  earliest  years,  —  the  scenes,  the 
songs,  the  beliefs,  the  prejudices  even,  —  how- 
ever much  we  may  recognize  that  the  value  we 
attributed  to  them  was  due  chiefly  to  our  own 
ignorance  and  crudeness,  never  cease  to  be  dear. 

Having  done  all  thou  canst  do,  await  the 
event  with  a  calm  mind.  Whatever  it  be,  thou 
art  blameless,  and  safe  therefore  from  harm. 

If  we  except  the  present  instant,  which  is 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  7$ 

gone  before  we  can  call  attention  to  it,  all  time 
is  past,  since  the  future  does  not  exist.  What 
is  past  has  ceased  to  be;  and  the  whole  of  life, 
therefore,  is  summed  in  an  instant,  which  —  if 
we  try  to  think  of  it  —  vanishes.  It  is  this 
that  gives  insight  into  the  illusiveness,  the 
evanescence,  the  emptiness,  the  futility  of  tem- 
poral existence,  driving  the  soul  back  on  itself 
and  impelling  it  to  seek  escape  from  annihila- 
tion in  the  bosom  of  the  Eternal,  in  whom, 
and  not  in  time,  it  truly  lives.  Hence  the  old, 
though  they  clearly  see  that  they  have  but  a 
little  while  to  remain  on  earth,  still  continue 
to  plan,  to  provide,  to  prolong  hope,  and  to 
cherish  expectation.  Though  they  know  it  not, 
they  are  already  dwellers  in  eternity. 

Only  the  greatest  minds  greatly  influence  us, 
and  not  even  they  unless  with  much  toil  and 
patience  we  work  our  way  into  the  heart  of 
their  thought  and  love. 

The  good  are  cautious  and  irresolute,  and 
therefore  the  affairs  of  the  world  are  delivered 
over  to  the  bold  and  unscrupulous,  who  have 
neither  the  will  nor  the  ability  to  accomplish 
anything  of  enduring  worth. 

The  child  lives  wholly  in  the  present  and  is 
influenced  solely  by  what  is  to  happen  now. 
The  youth  begins  to  look  to  the  future  but 


76  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.      . 

does  not  labor  with  joy  for  rewards  which  are 
distant.  It  is  a  mark  of  maturity  when  we 
grow  able  to  live  by  hope,  to  toil  on  through 
whatever  difficulties  and  obstacles,  strengthened 
by  the  thought  and  expectation  of  what  we  shall 
be  or  have  when  years  will  have  passed  by.  But 
the  wisest  and  the  strongest  alone  understand 
that  right  action  is  its  own  sufficient  blessing, 
that  to  do  day  by  day  the  best  one  can  do  is 
the  highest  and  sweetest  life,  whatever  may 
come  hereafter. 

The  welfare  and  happiness  of  those  around 
us  as  servants  and  neighbors  give  us  small  con- 
cern, and  yet  we  persuade  ourselves  that  we 
love  our  country  and  all  mankind;  are  foolish 
enough  even  to  imagine  that  we  are  capable  of 
making  sacrifices  to  promote  the  good  of  those 
who  shall  be  born  a  hundred  years  hence. 

The  rich  and  the  office-holders  receive  greater 
benefits  from  society  and  the  institutions  by 
which  it  is  maintained  than  the  multitude;  and 
hence  they  are  voluble  in  professions  of  patriot- 
ism and  of  respect  for  law,  though  in  truth  they 
generally  love  their  country  less  and  are  more 
willing  to  evade  the  duties  of  citizenship  than 
the  masses  of  the  people,  being  corrupted  by 
money  and  by  office. 

The  wholly  sincere  are  bewildered  and  lost 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  77 

in  the  midst  of  a  world  of  pretence,  and  would 
flee  from  the  monstrous  all-pervading  lie  to  soli- 
tude and  the  presence  of  God. 

The  most  perfect  beauty,  that  which  bears  the 
divinest  charm  and  is  clothed  with  the  sweetest 
grace,  eludes  our  utmost  endeavor  to  under- 
stand its  nature.  We  feel  its  presence,  are  sub- 
dued by  its  power,  worship  at  its  shrine,  but 
whether  it  be  found  in  the  human  countenance 
or  in  a  poem  or  a  painting,  in  a  statue  or  a 
musical  composition,  we  know  not  what  it  is; 
and  could  the  veil  of  mystery  be  lifted  the  spell 
would  be  broken. 

Men  are  followed  and  flattered  for  their 
money,  their  position,  their  power  to  confer 
honor  or  office,  for  their  titles  and  social  dis- 
tinctions; and  when  they  are  sought  for  them- 
selves, it  is  not  for  their  natural,  but  for  their 
acquired  qualities,  —  for  their  skill  in  law  or 
medicine,  in  oratory  or  music,  for  their  fine 
manners,  their  knowledge  of  polite  usages,  or 
their  ability  to  entertain.  What  is  inborn, —  as 
a  healthful  and  vigorous  constitution  or  physi- 
cal beauty,  —  however  much  it  may  be  cher- 
ished by  its  possessors,  has  of  itself  small  social 
value.  A  man  is  not  esteemed  or  rewarded  for 
his  strength,  but  for  the  uses  he  has  taught 
himself  to  put  it  to;  not  for  what  nature  has 


78  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

given  him,  but  for  what  art  has  made  him. 
Physical  beauty  may  attract  individuals  of  op- 
posite sex,  but  it  is  held  to  be  a  danger  or  a 
doubtful  good  unless  it  be  associated  with  in- 
telligence, refinement,  and  moral  worth.  One's 
value,  then,  as  a  social  being  depends  not  on 
what  he  has  received  from  nature,  but  on  what 
education  has  made  of  him. 

That  man  should  be  able  to  know  and  realize 
his  own  insignificance;  that  he,  a  being  of  a 
day,  an  atom  swallowed  in  immensity,  should 
be  capable  of  thoughts  which  wander  through 
eternity,  of  hopes  and  loves  which  touch  on  in- 
finity, is  the  most  indisputable  evidence  of  his 
heavenly  descent  and  nature;  and  we  are  pre- 
pared to  find  that  the  profoundest  minds  have 
best  insight  into  the  essential  littleness  of  human 
life,  the  deepest  sentiment  of  its  utter  vanity, 
when  it  is  considered  merely  as  a  fact  of 
time. 

They  who  lead  the  life  of  meditation  and  as- 
piration find  such  peace  and  joy  therein  that 
they  little  by  little  lose  the  power  to  take  in- 
terest in  the  ambitions,  struggles,  and  intrigues 
which  are  the  substance  of  history.  It  all  be- 
comes for  them  but  as  the  meaningless  agita- 
tions of  the  mobile  and  noisy  crowd. 

The   ancient   philosophers   theorized,    specu- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  79 

lated,  and  argued :  the  modern  observe,  experi- 
ment, and  induce  conclusions.  This  method 
they  apply  to  everything  from  matter  to  sen- 
sation and  thought;  but  the  farther  they  ad- 
vance the  wider  and  deeper  the  realms  of 
nescience  open  before  them.  So  their  larger 
knowledge  clamors  for  a  larger  faith. 

They  who  make  us  laugh  make  themselves 
ridiculous;  and  therefore  we  have  a  secret 
contempt  for  jesters,  mimics,  comedians,  and 
clowns.  It  is  difficult  to  take  seriously  those 
who  amuse  us.  In  the  courts  of  feudal  lords 
and  kings  the  providers  of  merriment  were  ac- 
counted fools.  However  willing  we  may  be  to 
pay  for  such  entertainment,  we  do  not  respect 
the  individuals  by  whom  it  is  furnished.  Laugh- 
ter is  at  the  expense  of  others,  and  is  generally 
provoked  by  what  makes  them  appear  awkward, 
absurd,  or  inferior.  A  smile  may  be  full  of  ap- 
proval, encouragement,  and  love ;  but  laughter  is 
more  apt  to  be  unfeeling,  mocking,  and  bitter; 
or  if  not  so,  it  bespeaks  a  vacant  mind,  and  is 
loudest  and  most  frequent  in  the  company  of 
the  rude.  The  malice  there  is  often  found  in 
it  is  insinuated  in  the  proverb,  he  laughs  best 
who  laughs  last.  It  is  senseless  to  be  provoked 
to  merriment  by  a  mishap  or  a  blunder,  and  to 
remain  serious  when  we  see  men  forgetting  to 


80  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

live,  that  they  may  give  all  their  time  to  the  ac- 
cumulating and  hoarding  of  money.  One  may 
find  it  ridiculous  too  that  a  man  should  be 
thought  superior  because  he  lives  in  a  great 
house  or  drives  in  a  showy  equipage,  while 
another  is  contemned  for  the  marks  toil  has 
put  on  him;  and  if  the  wise  may  ever  mock 
and  jeer,  they  should  be  allowed  this  privi- 
lege when  they  behold  the  servile  crowd  fawn- 
ing on  successful  thieves  or  applauding  lying 
demagogues. 

Resignation  is  a  virtue  which  religion  and 
philosophy  alike  inculcate;  but  there  is  need 
of  watchfulness  lest  it  degenerate  into  indif- 
ference, sloth,  negligence,  and  insensibility;  and 
this  danger  hides  also  in  humility,  obedience, 
and  patience  —  in  all  the  passive  virtues,  which 
if  cultivated  overmuch  beget  an  indolent  and 
sluggish  temper  that  is  easily  mistaken  for 
piety.  Virtue  is  essentially  strength;  and 
strength  becomes  weakness  unless  it  exercise 
itself. 

The  stoics  teach  that  the  wise  man  finds  his 
happiness,  not  in  the  things  that  lie  without  or 
which  are  subject  to  another's  will,  but  within 
his  own  mind.  It  is  objected  that  the  disposi- 
tion which  makes  this  possible  is  dependent  on 
the  causes  that  affect  health  of  body,  and  may 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  8 1 

be  lost  through  the  unbalancing  of  reason  or 
the  accidents  which  inflict  such  pain  as  to  make 
one  incapable  of  philosophy.  This  we  shall  ad- 
mit, and  yet  hold  that  to  fix  one's  heart  on 
what  cannot  be  taken  from  him  while  he  re- 
mains himself  is  the  best  wisdom. 

The  sense  of  responsibility  —  duty,  implying, 
as  it  does,  moral  freedom  —  is  the  deepest  and 
holiest  thing  in  us.  It  is  God's  witness  that  at 
the  heart  of  all  there  lies,  not  matter  and  fate, 
but  spirit  and  liberty.  It  is  born  of  the  con- 
sciousness of  a  Power  within  the  soul,  whose 
judgments  are  absolute,  whose  approval  or  rep- 
robation is  on  all  the  thoughts  and  words  and 
deeds  of  men.  The  supreme  interests  are 
moral.  They  are  whatever  fosters  reverence 
and  obedience,  hope  and  courage,  love  and  de- 
votion; whatever  lifts  man  above  the  law  of 
physical  necessity  and  places  him  in  a  world  of 
freedom  and  joy,  where  if  evil  befall  it  can  only 
be  through  his  failure  to  be  true  to  his  best 
insight. 

The  Highest  in  the  universe  is  a  person, 
and  the  essential  thing  in  personality  is  moral 
character. 

Nothing  but  the  self-activity  of  one's  own 
mind  can  make  him  wise  or  good  or  beautiful; 
and  hence  religion  and  philosophy  strengthen 
6 


82  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

and  ennoble  only  those  whom  they  impel  cease- 
lessly to  think  and  to  do. 

It  is  a  noble  thing  to  rouse  and  impel  to 
generous  effort,  but  it  is  an  evil  and  a  misfor- 
tune, even  though  it  be  the  effect  of  a  great 
and  imposing  mind  and  character,  to  weaken 
the  springs  of  self-activity  in  any  human  being. 

To  live  deliberately  below  the  truth  which 
we  know  is  to  turn  from  the  human  self  to 
animal  impulse. 

A  man  nobly  useful  is  hardly  to  be  found  in 
ten  thousand. 

As  well  expect  the  unthinking  to  compre- 
hend ultimate  origins  and  ends  as  believe  that 
they  who  live  for  greed  or  lust  or  ambition 
shall  understand  Christ's  words  when  He  says, 
Blessed  are  they  who  hunger  and  thirst  after 
righteousness.  The  animal-minded  know  not 
nor  love  the  things  of  the  spirit,  and  are  there- 
fore unable  to  teach  them.  They  may  repeat 
formulas,  but  they  cannot  make  them  vital. 

If  there  are  who  love  me  not,  nor  believe  nor 
think  nor  feel  as  I,  it  is  a  result  of  their  tem- 
perament and  character;  and  since  I  cannot 
hope  to  change  this,  why  should  I  be  troubled? 

None  are  persuaded  against  their  will,  and 
arguments  fail  to  convince  when  the  conclu- 
sions conflict  with  prejudices  or  interests. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  83 

The  wisest  and  best  even  may  not  give  utter- 
ance to  their  every  thought,  but  to  such  only  as 
they  have  considered,  weighed,  approved,  and 
accepted.  The  rest  are  the  dust  and  weeds  of 
the  mind. 

When  a  new  truth  dawns  on  us  our  first 
and  chief  joy  comes  of  the  thought  that  we 
shall  communicate  it;  but  when  we  get  posses- 
sion of  material  things  we  feel  that  to  share 
them  is  pain. 

Labor  to  acquire  skill  in  doing  the  things 
which  are  worth  while,  for  to  do  an  ill  thing 
well  doubles  the  fault. 

As  the  individual  advances  in  life,  contend- 
ing, striving,  hoping,  yearning,  he  gradually 
attains  truer  insight,  more  real  knowledge, 
more  certain  wisdom;  and  this  applies  to  the 
race  as  well.  What  is  hidden  from  one  gener- 
ation dawns  on  another  and  becomes  plain  to 
the  following.  Were  there  no  progress  in  in- 
sight and  knowledge,  there  would  be  none  at  all. 

They  who  have  strength  to  bear  have  strength 
to  forbear. 

They  who  cease  not  to  strive  for  the  best 
they  believe  and  know  cannot  fail. 

Piety  is  not  an  end  but  a  means  to  the 
attainment  of  perfect  peace  and  joy,  through 
perfect  love. 


84  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Pity  is  at  once  sympathy  and  the  desire  to 
relieve.  It  is  not  natural  to  man  more  than 
to  beasts.  It  is  a  virtue  he  must  acquire  and 
cultivate. 

There  is  no  worse  hopelessness  than  to  feel 
that  one  whom  you  love  cannot  be  helped  be- 
cause he  has  betrayed  himself  and  is  become 
helpless. 

They  who  persevere  in  the  line  of  their  talent 
accomplish  much,  while  they  who  continue  to 
do  what  nature  never  intended  they  should  do 
make  themselves  ridiculous. 

The  place  does  not  ennoble  you,  says  Plu- 
tarch, but  you  exalt  the  place  by  doing  what 
is  just  and  generous. 

No  mother  ever  saw  her  son  crowned  with 
more  transcendent  might  and  glory  than  Napo- 
leon's ;  but  it  hardly  occurs  to  any  one  to  think 
her  either  fortunate  or  happy.  This  we  reserve 
for  the  mothers  of  men  who  were  as  good  as 
they  were  great. 

Principles  lie  deeper  than  interests,  and  they 
are  more  intimately  associated  with  man's  prog- 
ress and  well-being. 

The  rights  of  man  are  prior  to  the  rights  of 
property,  and  they  are  more  sacred.  Property 
is  for  the  good  of  man,  and  to  make  money 
the  primary  aim,  and  human  welfare  the  sec- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  8$ 

ondary,  is  a  perversion  of  reason  and  con- 
science. The  moral,  domestic,  and  social  life  is 
more  important  than  pecuniary  profit,  since  the 
only  true  wealth  is  the  life  of  wise  and  noble 
men  and  women.  If  material  civilization  domi- 
nate religious  and  ethical  civilization,  the  out- 
come is  decay  and  ruin. 

What  right  hast  thou  to  throw  the  burden  of 
thy  weakness  and  misery  on  another?  If  thou 
art  a  coward,  hide  thy  infirmity  lest  it  prove 
infectious. 

If  thou  dost  not  take  care  of  thy  health  no 
remedies  will  avail;  if  thou  dost  not  build  thy 
character  all  observances  will  fail. 

Name  and  fame  are  worth  nothing  unless 
they  make  us  more  loving  and  helpful;  and 
for  others  our  distinctions  are  valuable  only  in 
so  far  as  they  become  for  them  a  source  of 
joy,  strength,  and  right  endeavor. 

They  who  have  authority  and  wealth  may 
do  hurt  to  the  noblest  by  their  favors,  but  not 
by  their  injustice  or  neglect. 

If  thou  art  wholly  in  earnest  and  rightly 
employed,  it  will  not  occur  to  thee  to  ask 
whether  others  think  well  or  ill  of  thee. 

Since  in  the  presence  of  vital  truth  the  mass 
of  mankind  are  irresponsive  and  lethargic,  there 
is  a  kind  of  relief  in  the  zeal  of  the  unthinking, 


86  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

though  in  an  age  when  we  are  deafened  by 
their  clamorous  advertisements  of  their  pana- 
ceas we  may  be  tempted  to  think  it  would  be 
a  lesser  evil  if  they  too  became  comatose  and 
voiceless. 

The  young  are  idealists,  and  we  should  foster 
their  divine  enthusiasm  by  helping  them  to 
believe  and  feel  that  this  is  God's  world,  where 
all  good  is  stored  for  those  who  make  themselves 
worthy,  who  know  and  love,  who  have  faith  and 
hope,  who  are  true  and  helpful,  self-active  and 
untiring. 

If  thou  art  not  moved  thyself  how  canst  thou 
hope  to  move  others  ?  The  voice  of  the  preacher 
is  as  that  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness,  because 
it  is  but  an  echo  from  rocks  that  bound  the 
hollow  waste.  A  phonograph  would  perform 
the  function  as  well. 

When  appeal  to  reason  is  possible,  appeal  to 
memory  is  a  mistake;  for  to  think  is  a  higher 
form  of  self-activity  than  to  recall. 

The  facts  which  a  learned  man  has  informa- 
tion about  are  of  small  value  to  himself  or  others, 
unless  he  have  a  disciplined  and  comprehensive 
mind,  which  gives  him  ability  to  marshal  and 
set  them  forth  with  power  and  in  right  order. 

Nothing  but  the  best  mental  culture  gives 
one  the  power  to  maintain  effectually  the  line 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  8/ 

which  separates  what  is  true  from  what  is  merely 
plausible. 

Ideas  and  ideals,  not  less  than  peoples  and 
institutions,  are  in  ceaseless  conflict,  and  the 
most  vigorous  and  energetic,  whether  or  not 
they  be  the  truest  and  the  highest,  survive. 
There  are  no  permanent  facts  or  possessions. 
The  celestial  orbs  and  all  that  they  contain  are 
combatants  on  a  universal  battle-field  where, 
whatever  the  final  outcome,  nothing  remains 
unchanged. 

The  best  reinforcement  of  life  is  found  in 
high  thoughts  and  generous  deeds.  Without 
them  we  can  hardly  call  life  human.  I  know  an 
old  man  who  by  the  labors  and  savings  of  years 
has  accumulated  a  million  dollars,  but  who  has 
never  cherished  a  noble  thought  nor  performed 
an  unselfish  service.  When  I  am  thrown  into 
contact  with  him  I  feel  that  he  is  and  has  been 
an  unreality,  the  mere  semblance  of  a  man. 

Whatever  draws  thee  into  solitude  is  a 
heaven-sent  invitation  to  seek  God  and  His 
kingdom  within  thyself.  Remember  this  when 
thy  friends  die  or  forsake  thee. 

If  we  but  knew  how  to  convert  all  hindrances, 
obstacles,  and  discouragements  into  opportu- 
nities, how  far  might  we  not  go  toward  the  goal 
of  a  worthy  and  blessed  life  ?  There  is  no  seem- 


88  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

ing  evil,  —  whether  it  be  infirm  health,  or  the 
falling  away  of  friends,  or  the  loss  of  reputation 
or  of  goods,  —  which,  if  we  are  true  to  our- 
selves, may  not  be  transformed  into  an  occasion 
and  a  means  of  self-improvement. 

When  one  whom  we  have  cherished  and  loved 
drifts  from  us  or  lets  us  fall  out  of  his  life,  he 
teaches  us  that  a  man's  highest  good  and  true 
salvation  are  not  to  be  found  in  friendship,  but 
in  giving  one's  self  to  God. 

Men  are  busy  with  their  own  affairs,  and  they 
will  not  concern  themselves  about  thee  unless 
they  can  make  thee  serviceable  to  their  pleasures 
or  interests.  Hold  it  not  a  vital  matter,  then, 
whether  they  bear  thee  good  or  ill  will. 

Good  deeds  to  be  excellent  must  be  done  in  a 
brave,  cheerful,  and  disinterested  spirit,  and  so 
wrought  they  are  their  own  reward. 

If  thou  think  it  worth  while  to  remember  or 
to  dwell  on  thy  troubles  and  wrongs,  or  thy 
pleasures  and  successes,  thou  art  not  a  cour- 
ageous and  loving  soul. 

The  best  place  is  where  God  puts  us,  if  there 
we  do  His  will.  Be  not  anxious  about  what  He 
has  reserved  to  Himself.  What  the  future  shall 
be  He  alone  knows.  Accept  what  is  and  put  it 
to  the  best  use.  Half  our  misery  would  vanish 
if  we  refused  to  entertain  forebodings  of  evils 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  89 

which  will  never  befall  us.  Vex  not  thyself  with 
thinking  what  thou  shalt  do  if  thy  superiors  or 
others  wrong  thee.  Thou  art  not  the  servant  of 
men  but  of  God,  and  however  thy  fellows  may 
behave  toward  thee,  it  is  thy  business  to  con- 
tinue to  act  in  all  things  in  obedience  to  eternal 
principles. 

The  more  thou  dependest  on  what  is  outside 
thyself,  the  more  slave  thou  art. 

Mere  health  will  often  make  a  man  contented ; 
riches  never. 

They  who  have  wrought  to  best  purpose 
have  been  wholly  intent  on  their  work,  heed- 
less of  what  was  or  might  be  said  of  it  or 
themselves. 

If  thou  lovest  thyself,  love  God;  for  except 
in,  through,  and  for  Him,  what  thou  callest 
thyself  is  but  a  phantasmagory. 

Love  is  the  society  of  beautiful  souls.  How- 
ever young  or  fair  we  be,  our  presence  is  not  a 
divine  boon,  cannot  inspire  joy,  hope,  and 
courage,  unless  the  mind  be  luminous  and  open, 
unless  the  heart  be  pure  and  generous.  Love 
aspires  —  looks  above,  not  below.  It  lives  in 
worlds  which  the  soul  creates  and  would  make 
eternal.  Lovers  wed  in  June  because,  as  it  is 
the  richest  and  most  beautiful  of  the  months,  it 
is  the  fittest  symbol  of  the  heavenly  dream  which 


90  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

exalts  and  beautifies  them.  They  alone  are 
unhappy  who  love  not. 

More  than  man  woman  must  watch  over  her 
emotions,  for  in  her  more  than  in  him  sentiment 
tends  to  become  folly. 

Why  should  the  wise  seek  the  company  of 
any  one  if  not  to  learn  or  impart  wisdom,  if  not 
to  gain  or  give  strength  and  joy? 

In  all  company  save  in  that  of  those  we  love 
and  wholly  trust  we  are  driven  to  suppress  what 
in  us  is  best. 

Let  thy  life-work  be  to  create  for  thyself  such 
a  mind  and  such  a  heart  as  to  make  it  impossible 
for  thee  to  think  foolishly,  or  to  speak  falsely,  or 
to  act  unjustly. 

The  deed  is  the  test  of  the  genuineness  of  the 
thought;  for  thoughts  which  we  have  not  lived 
or  earnestly  striven  to  live  are  but  formal. 

If  we  were  wholly  pure  we  might  walk  un- 
contaminated  through  all  the  contagions  of  vice ; 
if  we  were  truly  wise  no  error  could  mislead, 
no  doubt  deter  us  from  the  Godward  path. 

Virtue  is  never  piecemeal.  To  have  one  we 
must  have  several.  The  truthful  are  brave  and 
loyal;  the  chaste  are  loving  and  faithful. 

All  truth,  religious,  moral,  philosophic,  scien- 
tific, and  aesthetic,  liberates  by  enlarging  the 
sphere  of  consciousness  and  increasing  the 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  gi 

power  to  dwell  therein  as  beings  controlled  by 
reason. 

They  are  wisest  who  are  most  honest. 

Self-love  is  the  radical  passion,  and  unless 
it  be  transcended  and  subsumed  in  self-devo- 
tion, the  individual  remains  petty,  hard,  and 
uninteresting. 

If  we  are  not  obeyed  it  is  because  we  know 
not  how  to  command. 

Turn  from  those  who  insult  thee,  not  in  anger 
or  hatred,  but  from  a  feeling  of  self-respect 
and  because  thou  hast  no  time  to  give  to  ruffians. 

So  long  as  we  strive  with  all  our  hearts  to  rise 
toward  God,  forgiveness  of  even  the  worst 
injuries  is  easy. 

Extremes  are  excessive,  and  virtue  itself  may 
be  carried  to  a  point  where  it  merges  into  vice, 
as  they  who  travel  eastward  will,  if  they  go 
far  enough,  find  their  faces  turned  to  the 
west. 

Success  lies  along  the  line  of  natural  gifts; 
and  to  cultivate  assiduously  one's  talent  is  to 
make  failure  impossible. 

To  win  the  highest  success  it  is  necessary  to 
turn  resolutely  from  most  of  the  things  men 
crave. 

The  end  of  labor  is  the  acquirement  of  leisure 
to  give  one's  self  to  contemplation. 


92  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Chastisement  that  is  not  medicinal  degrades; 
unless  it  improve,  it  hardens. 

An  age  in  which  the  love  of  gain  is  not  merely 
greed,  but  ambition,  is  without  ideals  and  with- 
out distinction. 

If  thou  hast  love  enough,  thou  hast  faith 
enough.  If  we  could  all  but  know  and  feel  that 
God  is  love,  that  Christ  is  His  love  made  mani- 
fest, that  the  substance  of  religion  is  love,  that 
they  who  love  not  are  more  infidel  than  one 
who,  though  he  lack  faith,  strives  with  all  his 
heart  to  be  of  service,  —  if  this  truth  could  be 
made  to  live  within  us,  we  should  quickly  find 
means  to  end  our  disputes. 

In  the  presence  of  irreparable  loss,  of  hope- 
less failure,  of  impending  death,  what  consola- 
tion is  there  save  in  religion? 

Do  thy  work  to-day  and  it  shall  be  well  with 
thee  to-morrow. 

If  we  would  make  progress  we  must  struggle 
and  toil  and  cease  not  from  labor;  must  drain 
and  fill  the  sloughs  through  which  our  sensual 
nature  would  drag  us;  must  level  the  moun- 
tains which  pride  and  conceit  raise  in  the  path 
of  all  who  are  forward  bent.  There  is  no  ad- 
vance unless  we  overcome  both  nature  and  our- 
selves. Only  so  can  we  have  foretaste  of  God's 
almightiness. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  93 

Religion,  which  is  faith  and  courage,  hope  and 
confidence,  strength  and  righteousness,  leads 
those  whom  it  utterly  possesses  to  power  and 
wealth.  Its  success  is  fatal,  while  they  who  have 
power  and  wealth,  but  not  the  spiritual  mind 
which  religion  alone  can  give,  are  doomed  to 
failure  and  misery. 

Life  is  short.  A  little  more  knowledge,  a 
little  more  virtue  is  all  we  can  hope  to  gain; 
and  for  this  reason  the  little  more  is  infinitely 
precious. 

The  transformation  of  the  germ  into  the  per- 
fect plant  or  animal  does  not  excite  wonder, 
because  we  see  it  taking  place  everywhere ;  and 
the  evolutionary  hypothesis  being  assumed  as 
true,  could  we  behold  a  universal  transformation 
of  the  lower  into  the  higher,  we  should  not  feel 
surprise.  The  mystery  of  life,  however,  would 
remain  unfathomable  as  now,  except  to  faith. 

The  test  of  the  vitality  of  faith  is  its  power 
to  inspire  virile  conduct. 

Seek  not  to  excuse  nor  to  console  thyself  with 
lies.  There  is  no  refuge  for  cowards. 

Even  they  who  are  best  hedged  about  with 
circumstance  and  pomp  are  daily  placed  in  situ- 
ations in  which,  were  the  curtain  withdrawn, 
they  would  appear  to  be  ridiculous  or  pitiful. 

Small  things  are  most  easily  preserved  and 


94  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

handed  down:  a  jewel  or  a  coin  will  outlast 
an  empire;  and  a  little  volume  which  holds 
great  truth  in  narrow  bounds  is  apt  to  prove 
more  vital  than  huge  tomes. 

The  promise  awakens  keener  interest  than  the 
deed,  because  we  live  by  hope.  However  great 
our  achievement,  when  nothing  more  is  to  be 
expected  of  us  the  world  turns  away. 

A  pun  is  wit  of  words,  whereas  true  wit  deals 
with  ideas. 

They  who  appeal  to  appetite  and  pruriency 
are  interesting  only  to  the  depraved. 

Who  that  is  able  to  live  in  the  imagination, 
exalted  by  wisdom  and  insight,  would  care  to 
have  again  a  relish  for  the  naive  pleasures  of 
childhood  and  youth? 

Were  we  compelled  to  do  the  things  we  pur- 
sue as  pastimes  they  would  soon  become  intol- 
erable; but  the  compulsion  which  drives  the 
wise  and  good  to  follow  after  truth  and  love 
grows  the  dearer  the  more  irresistible  it  is  felt 
to  be. 

The  words  true  poets  write  are  forever  mag- 
netic and  phosphorescent. 

Every  saintly  and  heroic  deed  strikes  us  as  a 
marvel,  and  strengthens  our  confidence  in 
human  nature,  as  miracles  heighten  our  faith 
in  God. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  95 

Think  not  of  thyself  at  all;  or  if  this  be  im- 
possible think  modestly  of  thyself. 

Seek  the  wealth  which  the  more  it  is  com- 
municated the  more  abundantly  it  becomes 
thine  —  the  wealth  there  is  in  wisdom,  courage, 
and  love. 

If  reason  be  not  unreason,  there  is  a  right  and 
a  wrong,  severed  each  from  other  everlastingly. 
Cleave,  then,  with  all  thy  might  to  moral  good, 
and  it  is  and  shall  be  well  with  thee. 

The  best  human  life  even  is  so  far  beneath 
man's  highest  thought  and  truest  insight  that 
happiness  can  be  found  only  in  the  yearning 
discontent  which  urges  and  impels  to  heroic 
striving  and  battling  for  better  things. 

Accommodate  thyself  to  thy  lot  day  by  day, 
confident  it  is  the  best  for  thee  if  thou  art  true. 

The  many  count  their  days  by  the  dollars 
they  make;  the  better  few  by  the  increase  of 
truth  and  love  within  themselves. 

Worldlings  are  vulgar,  and  nothing  high  or 
great  is  to  be  expected  of  them. 

Thou  wouldst  not  deliberately  praise  thyself; 
but  what  else  is  the  speaking  of  aught  which 
may  raise  thee  in  the  estimation  of  another? 

To  feel  no  impulse  toward  something  higher 
than  one's  self  is  to  fail  to  lead  a  human  life. 

Neither  excuse  nor  accuse  thyself. 


96  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Though  there  should  be  reason  for  thinking 
that  to-morrow  thou  shalt  be  accused  of  capital 
crime  or  raised  to  some  exalted  dignity,  do  thy 
work  to-day  in  all  earnestness  and  composure. 

Stand  firm  and  immovable,  says  St.  Ignatius, 
as  an  anvil  when  it  receives  blow  upon  blow. 

They  who  rightly  pray  do  right;  and  they 
who  do  right  pray  rightly. 

In  the  eyes  of  all  the  world  the  prime  defect 
is  lack  of  money.  No  other  is  so  sure  to  make 
one  appear  ridiculous  or  contemptible.  The 
safest  are  they  for  whom  a  little  suffices. 

In  controversies  and  contests  we  take  sides 
in  obedience  to  interests  and  prejudices,  and 
then  hunt  for  arguments  to  justify  our  position. 

Beethoven,  when  his  ears  had  been  closed 
forever  to  all  sound,  continued  to  beat  out  the 
celestial  harmonies  he  could  never  hope  to  hear. 
So  all  genius  does  its  work  from  inner  necessity, 
heedless  of  other  reward  than  that  which  the 
divine  urgency  brings. 

The  true  function  of  art  is  interpretation.  It 
translates  nature  into  words  and  forms  of  truth 
and  beauty. 

We  can  no  more  build  a  worthy  life  on  a  basis 
of  mere  physical  beauty  than  we  can  dwell  in 
comfort  in  a  bower  of  roses. 

A  fair  face  easily  impoverishes  both  mind  and 
heart. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  97 

Beauty,  says  Milton,  is  God's  handwriting,  a 
wayside  sacrament. 

No  life  is  so  wearisome  and  disappointing  as 
a  life  of  pleasure. 

The  great  writers  form  clusters,  and  they  are 
in  literature  what  the  great  constellations  are  in 
the  heavens. 

If  thou  wouldst  persuade  and  convince,  speak 
what  thy  own  experience  has  taught  thee  — 
ex  homine  and  not  ad  hominem. 

Man's  spiritual  being  rests  on  a  foundation 
of  faith  and  hope,  which  reason  outlines  and 
lays,  while  imagination  rears  and  adorns .  the 
temple.  The  true  home  of  the  most  matter-of- 
fact,  even,  is  built  by  this  visionary  power  which 
weaves  the  vesture  that  makes  life  fair  and  de- 
lightful, which  drapes,  shields,  and  comforts  us 
in  youth  and  in  age,  in  poverty  and  in  riches,  in 
sickness  and  in  health. 

The  best  are  urged  irresistibly  to  improve 
themselves;  and  since  they  feel  that  their  en- 
vironment, physical  and  spiritual,  is  part  of 
themselves,  they  are  urged  to  ceaseless  labors 
to  promote  the  general  welfare,  though  they  are 
aware  all  the  while  that  no  possible  advance  can 
make  this  earthly  existence  satisfactory  to  im- 
mortal souls. 

,We  are  charmed  by  a  fair  face  and  form, 
7 


98  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

until  catching  the  utterance  of  the  life  within, 
we  turn  away  like  one  on  whom  a  trick  has 
been  played.  Speak,  says  Ben  Jonson,  that  I 
may  see  thee. 

To  be  able  to  take  delight  in  the  genius,  good- 
ness, and  power  of  another  is  the  rarest  virtue : 
it  is  the  fruit  of  noble  nature  and  best  culture. 

Ask  me  for  anything  you  please,  says  Na- 
poleon, except  time. 

If  thou  wouldst  have  strength  and  joy,  learn 
to  be  indifferent  to  everything  except  to  that 
which  constitutes  the  essential  good  of  life. 

The  love  of  God  gives  being  to  everything. 
Love  Him  and  thou  shalt  not  complain  of 
aught. 

Accustom  thyself  to  the  thought  that  thy 
rights  are  of  minor  importance,  the  fulfilment  of 
thy  duties  being  the  essential  thing. 

The  knowledge  and  love  of  truth,  goodness, 
and  beauty,  which  are  God's  being,  is  life  at  its 
best.  Whatever  helps  to  this,  whether  it  be 
pleasure  or  pain,  success  or  failure,  is  to  be 
welcomed  and  cherished. 

The  sense  of  inner  freedom  which  is  born  of 
the  consciousness  of  earnest  striving  to  upbuild 
one's  being  and  to  fulfil  righteousness  is  the 
one  unfailing  source  of  self-respect. 

Foes  are  the  friends  of  the  educable.    They 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  99 

help  them  to  become  vigilant,  patient,  circum- 
spect, humble,  and  courageous. 

My  heart  is  more  strengthened  by  the  good 
I  have  seen  in  children  and  in  the  poor  than  by 
the  genius  of  philosophers  and  poets. 

Religion  and  virtue  are  found  in  the  rich  and 
in  the  poor ;  but  in  the  poor  they  are  more  spon- 
taneous and  loving,  rising  without  too  great 
difficulty  to  higher  and  higher  potencies,  while 
in  the  rich  they  seem  to  be  delicate  and  to  require 
special  care  and  nurture. 

Let  thy  busiest  and  most  fruitful  moments  be 
those  in  which  thou  hast  nothing  to  do,  for  they 
who  are  never  less  idle  than  when  seemingly 
idle  utter  the  words  and  do  the  deeds  which  are 
a  possession  for  all  time. 

As  we  open  doors  and  windows  to  the  rising 
sun  and  close  them  when  it  sets,  so  are  we  ever 
ready  to  welcome  the  prosperous  and  to  turn 
from  those  who  fail. 

Be  thy  progress  from  faith  to  knowledge,  from 
knowledge  to  wisdom,  from  wisdom  to  love. 

Sound  compels  us  more  than  reason.  Words 
—  the  quality  of  voice,  the  tone  in  which  they 
are  uttered  —  move  us  more  strongly  than 
argument. 

The  love  of  money  is  the  root  of  evil;  but 
in  it  there  is  this  goodness,  that  it  is  the  most 


IOO  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

universal  and  potent  stimulus  to  industry, 
without  which  nothing  worth  while  can  be 
accomplished. 

Whether  health  or  beauty  or  wealth  be  a  good 
or  an  evil  for  thee  depends  on  what  thou  art. 

Chance  is  but  a  word  for  our  ignorance  of  the 
causes  by  which  things  are  produced  and  events 
come  to  pass. 

They  who  are  long  absent  from  their  friends 
become  for  them  at  last  as  though  they  had 
ceased  to  live.  If  it  be  objected  that  absence 
cannot  pluck  love  from  the  heart's  memory,  that 
is  true  also  of  death. 

The  highest  service  of  action  is  to  stimulate 
thought  and  love. 

Only  those  who  give  themselves  to  contem- 
plation grow  sublime  in  action. 

True  and  helpful  is  the  love  which  blends 
with  the  current  of  all  the  high  aims  and  ends 
of  life,  and  becomes  an  added  impulse  to  their 
pursuit  and  accomplishment. 

The  significance  and  importance  of  a  man  lie 
in  the  vital  truth  he  sets  forth  and  embodies, 
whether  in  deeds  or  in  words. 

The  highest  courage  is  to  dare  to  appear  to 
be  what  one  is;  for  they  who  so  dare  must  be 
noble,  or  else  shameless  and  not  to  be  considered. 

To  recognize  his  master  in  a  crowd  his  dog 


u  or  THE    '     \ 

J  DIVERSITY   ) 

or 
GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  IOI 

takes  a  sniff  at  the  calf  of  his  leg,  and  so  learns 
about  as  much  of  him  as  most  men  know  of  one 
another. 

They  who  admire  us  give  us  purer  pleas- 
ure than  they  who  love  us,  for  they  are  less 
exacting. 

Did  we  but  know  Thee,  O  God,  we  should  be 
consoled  for  all  the  ills  of  life. 

Vital  truth  to  be  known  must  be  felt,  and  it 
can  be  felt  only  by  the  lowly-minded  and  the 
pure  of  heart. 

Evil  passions  punish  first  and  worst  of  all 
those  who  cherish  them. 

We  are  ruined  by  borrowing — by  borrowing 
trouble  even  more  than  by  borrowing  money. 

Nothing  is  cheap  the  production  of  which 
involves  the  ruin  of  human  souls  and  bodies. 

They  who  lose  their  hearts  begin  by  losing 
their  heads. 

The  stronger  thou  art  the  more  thou  owest; 
the  weaker,  the  greater  thy  claim  on  thy  fellows. 

The  loss  of  money  is  gain  if  it  create  a  truer 
appreciation  of  how  little  of  it  we  need. 

We  wonder  most  where  we  are  most  ignorant. 

If  thou  art  indifferent  to  praise,  detraction 
should  not  disturb  thee. 

The  more  inferior  those  with  whom  we  live, 
the  greater  our  need  of  humility. 


IO2  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

The  enemies  a  man's  virtues  make  him  should 
help  him  to  become  more  virtuous. 

A  pure  and  simple  heart  changes  life's  poisons 
to  medicines. 

Faith  is  happiness;  hope  is  happiness;  love 
is  happiness;  true  religion,  which  is  the  fine 
flower  and  fruit  of  faith,  hope,  and  love,  is 
happiness;  and  so  long  as  man  shall  crave  for 
happiness  religion  shall  have  influence  on  him. 

If  thy  faith  in  God  is  real  thou  shalt  see  Him 
in  what  gives  thee  pain  even  more  than  in  what 
gives  thee  pleasure. 

He  who  feels  that  he  cannot  suffer  harm  from 
any  outward  wrong  or  deprivation  has  the  divine 
mind;  is  a  citizen  of  an  imperishable  state,  a 
dweller  in  worlds  where  what  is  good  and  fair 
is  so  forever.  Whatever  happen,  he  is  safe- 
sheltered. 

To  me  nothing  seems  so  desirable  as  leisure 
—  leisure  to  dream,  to  think,  to  meditate,  to  be 
alone  with  God  and  the  soul. 

If  thy  enemy,  intending  to  do  thee  harm,  has 
driven  thee  back  on  the  inner  sources  of  life, 
know  that  for  thee  he  is  part  of  God's  special 
providence. 

Right  use  may  be  made  of  all  things,  both 
good  and  evil;  and  they  who  have  this  wisdom 
possess  the  secret  of  right  living. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  10$ 

If  thou  art  censured,  examine  thy  conscience ; 
if  praised,  believe  it  flattery. 

Whatever  happen,  continue  to  work.  If  thou 
find  not  the  buried  treasure,  thy  labor  shall  make 
the  soil  fertile. 

When  one's  convictions  have  been  wrought 
into  deeds  they  become  inexpugnable. 

Vigorous  minds  have  strong  passions. 

They  who  are  right  can  afford  to  pardon, 
whether  victorious  or  defeated. 

The  fire  genius  kindles  sets  the  world  ablaze. 

Originality,  Voltaire  says,  is  judicious  selec- 
tion, and  Newman  holds  it  to  be  the  power  of 
abstracting  for  one's  self.  They  are  not  so  far 
apart,  for  judicious  selection  is  a  kind  of 
abstraction. 

Though  thou  fail  to  make  others  good  make 
thyself  so. 

If  thy  happiness  be  founded  on  the  opinion 
others  have  of  thee  thou  art  miserable. 

Suggestive  writing  is  the  most  helpful  and  the 
most  pleasing,  because  it  creates  best  oppor- 
tunity for  discovery. 

If  banished  from  the  approval  of  men,  find 
paradise  within. 

Only  that  for  which  we  have  long  striven  and 
suffered  becomes  wholly  plain  to  us. 

A  true  thought  outweighs  a  fortune.     The 


IO4  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

world  finds  this  incredible,  because  its  realm  is 
seemingness  and  lies. 

Our  tastes  depend  on  what  we  are.  Flies 
batten  on  things  men  find  loathsome.  We  are 
akin  to  what  attracts  us. 

They  who  have  learned  to  live  in  the  realms 
of  thought  turn  from  what  is  popular  and  there- 
fore vulgar.  The  applauding  crowd  is  a  bore. 
There  is  nothing  more  appealing  in  the  gospels 
than  the  touches  which  present  the  Lord  and 
Master,  who  loved  and  served  the  poor  and  dis- 
inherited, as  shrinking  from  the  acclaiming 
throng. 

Were  every  soul  of  the  billion  and  a  half  now 
living  to  fall  asleep  at  the  same  moment,  nothing 
would  be  changed.  The  sun  would  send  forth 
heat  and  light,  the  stars  would  keep  their  places, 
the  earth  would  whirl  onward,  the  mountains 
would  lift  their  peaks,  the  oceans  would  roll,  the 
rivers  flow,  the  flowers  bloom,  the  birds  break 
into  song ;  and  so  would  it  be  though  from  the 
world-wide  sleep  there  should  be  no  awakening. 
As  we  look  backward  and  behold  our  planet  a 
molten  mass  on  which  life  is  impossible,  so  with 
a  glance  of  the  mind  we  dip  into  the  future  and 
see  it  a  frozen  rock  from  which  every  vestige  of 
life  has  forever  disappeared. 


IV. 


AS  it  depends  on  ourselves  whether  the 
flowers  and  the  starlit  heavens  awaken  in 
us  emotion  and  aspiration,  so  what  we  are  de- 
termines whether  great  thoughts  and  great  pur- 
poses shall  illumine  and  strengthen  us. 

The  solid  globe  of  earth  is  not  so  opaque  as 
the  obtuse  and  indifferent. 

They  whose  hearts  are  disenthralled  of  the 
love  of  material  things  are  happy  in  their  sense 
of  inner  freedom  even  more  than  in  their  con- 
sciousness of  possessing  the  power  to  inspire 
and  uplift. 

The  exception  proves  the  rule,  because  to  be 
an  exception  it  must  stand  forth  in  opposition  to 
what  is  general.  If  an  unselfish  and  disinter- 
ested man  be  a  rare  man  he  proves  that  men 
are  self-seeking. 

It  is  hard  for  a  rich  man  to  be  a  friend,  for 
he  suspects  that  not  himself  but  his  gold  is  the 
magnet;  it  is  hard  for  him  to  be  a  Christian, 
for  he  knows  that  a  follower  of  Christ  must  use 
his  wealth  to  make  truth  and  love  and  righteous- 
ness prevail. 


IO6  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Women  inspire  men  with  the  noblest  am- 
bitions and  hinder  them  from  accomplishing  the 
best. 

Love  is  content  with  little,  and  can  never  have 
enough. 

The  holiest  purposes  and  deeds  are  known  to 
God  alone. 

If  thou  wouldst  not  debase  thyself,  nor  insult 
nor  wrong  any  human  being. 

Language  has  higher  potency  than  bread. 
Bread  nourishes  the  body,  language  the  mind. 
Words  not  only  replenish  but  create;  not  only 
strengthen  but  illumine  and  transform. 

To  be  incapable  of  friendship  is  to  be  lacking 
in  the  essentials  of  humanity. 

Be  self-sufficient,  knowing  that  God  is  always 
with  thee ;  yet  be  persuaded  that  the  help  which 
man  can  give  to  man  is  infinite  when  two  or 
three  or  many  unite  and  devote  themselves  to 
some  good  cause. 

The  cock  of  the  walk,  says  a  French  writer,  is 
generally  a  goose. 

The  love  of  man  for  woman,  says  Plato,  is 
a  thing  common  and  of  course,  and  at  first  has 
in  it  more  of  instinct  and  passion  than  of  choice ; 
but  true  friendship  between  man  and  man  is 
infinite  and  immortal. 

In  the  hour  of  distress  and  misery,  says  Lan- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  IO/ 

dor,  the  eye  of  every  mortal  turns  to  friendship. 
In  the  hour  of  gladness  and  conviviality  what 
is  our  want  ?  It  is  friendship.  When  the  heart 
overflows  with  gratitude  or  any  other  sweet  and 
sacred  sentiment,  what  is  the  word  to  which  it 
would  give  utterance?  A  friend. 

The  company  one  habitually  seeks  and  keeps 
reveals  character,  because  we  are  largely  what 
we  make  one  another  —  loyal  or  false,  honest  or 
insincere,  magnanimous  or  mean,  brave  or 
cowardly,  chaste  or  dissolute,  hard  or  loving, 
religious  or  impious.  In  this  lies  the  good  of 
friendship,  which  is  possible  only  to  noble 
natures.  Hence  too  the  deep  and  all-pervading 
wretchedness  which  flows  from  wedded  life 
when  the  high  are  mated  with  the  low,  the  pure 
and  gentle  with  the  coarse  and  vulgar. 

The  nobler  one  is  the  less  is  he  capable  of 
resentment. 

Nothing  is  interesting  unless  it  be  suffused 
with  the  light  of  the  mind. 

It  is  easier  to  respect  one  who  bores  than  one 
who  amuses  us. 

The  solitude  which  nourishes  the  soul  is  the 
solitude  of  the  self-active.  The  idle  and  un- 
thinking, alone  or  in  company,  are  miserable 
and  beyond  the  reach  of  help. 

The  critic,  says  Sainte-Beuve,  is  one  who 
knows  and  teaches  others  how  to  read. 


IO8  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Virtues  attract  no  notice;  vices  awaken 
curiosity. 

Like  crowds  that  stand  waiting  for  the  doors 
to  open,  we  all  wait  in  expectancy  of  life  till 
death  unbars  the  gates. 

We  complain  that  man's  life  is  short;  but 
were  it  unending  it  would  be  intolerable. 

Let  a  generous  faith  and  love  keep  thee  still 
superior  to  thy  knowledge;  for  they  who  suc- 
cumb to  erudition  are  weaklings  and  bores. 

Politeness  is  the  child  of  love. 

There  is  nothing  so  delightful,  nothing  which 
so  surely  retains  its  charm  and  freshness  as  the 
conversation  of  one  who  thinks  and  knows  how 
to  talk. 

All  noble  souls,  all  great  minds  are  contem- 
poraries and  compatriots. 

The  orator's  look  is  part  of  his  eloquence. 

The  pure  reason  is  a  corrosive.  It  eats  away 
truth  and  beauty.  It  dissects  and  analyzes  till 
nothing  remains. 

Whoever  has  a  luminous  mind  and  a  loving 
heart  has  the  power  to  delight  though  he  be  an 
hundred  years  old. 

If  thou  hast  a  soul,  give  it  opportunity  and 
command. 

Thy  health  is  important,  but  it  is  not  a  matter 
for  the  entertainment  of  thy  friends. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  109 

From  the  unhappy  we  seek  escape  as  from 
beggars  who  claim  our  pity  and  help. 

Everything  depends  on  the  point  of  view. 
Place  thyself  an  hundred  years  backward  or 
forward,  and  the  billion  and  a  half  of  human 
beings  who  people  the  earth  to-day  become 
as  unimportant  as  the  leaves  the  frosts  have 
killed. 

The  thought  and  industry  expended  in  pro- 
curing more  abundant  and  more  luxurious 
means  of  living  would  transform  the  world  into 
a  kingdom  of  heaven  if  devoted  to  the  further- 
ance of  a  more  intelligent  and  unselfish  kind  of 
life. 

An  hour  with  God  and  with  one's  own 
thoughts  is  worth  whole  days  of  pleasant 
company. 

The  power  to  help  still  remains  when  the 
power  to  please  has  departed. 

With  attention,  mildness,  and  tact  one  may  do 
almost  anything  in  the  world  of  men. 

A  not  unimportant  service  which  the  really 
great  do,  they  render  by  remaining  forever 
interesting. 

They  who  do  not  care  to  be  of  help  do  not 
care  to  live;  for  they  who  turn  away  from  the 
power  and  opportunity  to  serve  neglect  what 
gives  to  life  its  purest  joy. 


I IO  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Pure  delight  in  another's  good  is  the  rarest 
of  joys. 

Think  of  the  rights  of  others  rather  than  of 
their  duties;  but  where  thou  thyself  art  con- 
cerned think  of  thy  duties,  not  of  thy  rights. 

None  but  the  frivolous  would  rather  be  loved 
than  respected. 

The  most  general  cause  of  failure  is  unwill- 
ingness or  inability  to  make  right  use  of  leisure. 

The  one  purpose  of  business  is  to  get  the 
money  of  others ;  hence,  to  take  a  merely  busi- 
ness view  of  life  is  to  take  a  selfish  and  non- 
human  view. 

To  think  of  a  success  in  the  joy  it  gives  to  a 
friend,  says  D'Aurevilly,  is  to  drink  one's  nectar 
from  a  golden  cup. 

Nothing  is  so  rare  as  great  men  without  great 
faults,  and  it  were  not  rash  to  affirm  that  the 
only  pure  and  innocent  being  who  has  appeared 
in  human  form  and  exercised  a  world-trans- 
forming influence  is  Christ  the  Lord  and 
Saviour.  If  there  be  another  it  is  some  disciple 
and  follower  of  Him. 

The  primary  truths  of  the  Christian  religion 
are  the  root  principles  of  right  life. 

However  much  we  boast  of  the  sovereignty  of 
the  people,  of  government  of,  by,  and  through, 
and  for  them,  the  people  know  that  they  can 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  Ill 

do  nothing  right  unless  they  are  rightly  coun- 
selled, led,  and  governed.  As  by  instinct  they 
look  to  those  who  are  clothed  with  authority 
for  guidance  and  command.  In  a  popular  gov- 
ernment more  than  in  any  other,  the  individuals 
to  whom  the  general  interests  are  intrusted  do 
infinite  harm  when  they  are  incompetent,  care- 
less, or  corrupt. 

No  object  of  our  love  could  give  us  aught 
but  pain  were  we  to  know  that  within  an  hour 
it  would  drop  out  of  our  lives  forever.  Hap- 
piness, therefore,  is  not  to  be  found  in  the 
enjoyment  of  the  present  moment,  but  in  look- 
ing with  hope  and  confidence  to  the  future. 

In  doing  what  I  feel  to  be  the  command  of 
conscience,  in  the  belief  that  I  have  done  it 
thoroughly  well,  I  gain  a  stronger  sense  of  the 
worth  and  goodness  of  life.  But  my  purest  joy, 
if  I  be  not  self-deceived,  springs  from  the  con- 
templation of  the  highest  truth,  the  divinest 
beauty,  and  the  absolute  good;  and  this,  as  I 
understand  it,  is  communion  with  God. 

Nor  State  nor  Church  can  remain  vital  and 
vigorous  unless  it  administer  the  abiding  truth 
in  the  manner  which  the  conditions  of  the  age 
render  applicable  and  life-giving. 

The  less  one  knows  the  more  certain  he  is 
that  what  he  knows  is  true. 


112  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

The  irresolute  are  necessarily  unhappy,  for 
life  is  effort,  and  therefore  purpose  and  deter- 
mination. 

Man  knows  only  infinitesimally ;  but  he  is 
capable  of  believing,  hoping,  and  loving  in- 
finitely; and  he  is  most  godlike  and  heroic,  not 
when  he  understands  but  when  he  is  uplifted 
and  borne  onward  by  a  living,  heaven-seeking 
faith  and  love. 

The  great  mainstays  of  faith  and  religion  are 
enthusiasm,  purity  of  life,  and  property. 

Poverty  weaves  about  us  a  thousand  bonds. 
Its  stern  and  inexorable  voice  is  not,  Thou  shalt 
not;  but,  Thou  canst  not.  If  one  would  have 
leisure,  or  visit  the  fairest  lands,  or  look  on  the 
noblest  works  of  art,  or  meet  famous  men,  or 
employ  the  highest  skill,  or  travel  in  the  most 
health-begetting  regions,  or  have  faces  brighten 
with  welcoming  smiles  as  he  approaches,  pov- 
erty makes  it  all  impossible.  It  is  hardly  sur- 
prising, therefore,  that  the  passion  for  gold 
should  overmaster  us.  But  once  we  have  gotten 
wealth,  it  nearly  always  happens  that  we  have 
not  only  become  incapable  of  enjoying  the 
purest  delights,  but  have  grown  insensible  even 
to  the  cheap  pleasures  which  money  can  buy. 

Compulsion  is  hated  of  all  the  world.  The 
deepest  in  us  protests  against  it,  and  bears 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  113 

authentic  witness  that  consciousness  of  the  will's 
freedom  is  primary  and  fundamental. 

Whatever  be  the  method  and  equipment,  the 
teacher's  success  depends  on  the  amount  and 
quality  of  life,  of  love,  and  of  earnestness  which 
he  brings  to  the  fulfilment  of  his  task.  If  he 
himself  be  apathetic,  careless,  and  incapable, 
though  the  school  building  be  a  palace  of  art 
and  science,  no  effective  education  can  be  given. 

We  hold  no  man  who  has  died  in  a  worthy 
cause,  however  terrible  the  manner  of  his  death, 
to  have  been  either  unfortunate  or  unhappy. 
Nay,  we  believe  his  lot  blessed,  and  are  certain 
that  he  has  made  the  best  use  of  life  in  sacri- 
ficing it  on  the  altar  of  what  is  permanently 
right,  true,  and  holy;  for  in  our  inmost  souls 
we  know  and  feel  that  the  highest  human  good 
is  an  unselfish,  devoted,  and  heroic  spirit. 

Men  who  have  played  a  great  part  have  rarely 
disclosed  the  inmost  motives  by  which  their 
course  was  determined.  Nothing,  indeed,  is 
more  difficult  than  to  give  a  true  and  adequate 
account  of  the  influences  which  have  controlled 
one's  actions,  even  in  the  minor  affairs  of  life. 
Our  motives  are  as  complex  and  as  hard  to 
unravel  as  human  nature  itself. 

Give  me,  says  Plato,  beauty  in  the  inward  soul, 
and  may  the  inner  and  the  outer  man  be  one. 

8 


114  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Learn  to  feel  as  thy  own  all  the  good  of  thy 
fellow-men,  all  the  joy,  success,  and  power  in 
which  they  are  blameless,  and  thy  life  shall  be 
filled  with  gladness  and  thy  soul  with  joy. 

The  world-wide  scandal — atheism  enacted — 
lies  in  the  contradiction  which  exists  and  has 
always  existed  between  profession  and  practice 
—  saying  one  thing  and  doing  another. 

When  one  is  at  college,  however  unpleasant 
the  restraint,  however  ungrateful  the  task,  he 
is  consoled  and  strengthened  by  the  thought  that 
he  is  gaining  what  will  be  of  service  in  after-life; 
and  so  in  whatever  situation  we  find  confidence 
and  courage,  if  we  feel  that  we  are  growing 
in  wisdom  and  virtue. 

Who  here  and  now  lives  with  eternal  things, 
Drinks  peace  and  joy  from  life's  perennial  springs. 

Think  not  of  thyself,  but  of  the  work  God 
has  given  thee  to  do;  not  of  happiness,  but  of 
right-doing;  not  of  what  others  shall  say,  but 
of  what  duty  commands. 

It  is  never  safe  to  be  conspicuous,  save  in  the 
performance  of  good,  or  in  the  utterance  of  right 
words. 

If  we  could  but  learn  to  withdraw  ourselves 
from  trifles  and  to  devote  our  leisure  to  think- 
ing and  to  the  company  of  immortal  minds,  we 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  115 

should  know  the  peace  and  repose  which  is  the 
central  feeling  of  all  blessedness. 

With  those  who  have  but  opinions  intercourse 
is  unprofitable.  One  can  neither  learn  from 
them  nor  teach  them. 

The  companionship  of  which  one  never  tires, 
which  the  longer  it  continues  the  more  pleasant 
and  helpful  it  grows,  is  the  work  one  loves.  It 
deepens  and  purifies  the  fountain-head  of  life 
and  joy,  and  it  neither  wears  nor  wearies. 

Who  shall  love  instruction?  Who  shall  un- 
derstand words  of  wisdom?  They  alone  whom 
experience  makes  wise. 

A  gentleman  is  one  whose  mind  is  luminous 
and  whose  heart  is  pure. 

Whoever  is  unable  to  look  through  language 
into  the  realities  it  symbolizes,  unable  to  make 
himself  the  master  instead  of  the  servant  of 
words,  lacks  culture  and  insight. 

The  deepest  depravity  is  in  those  who  prey 
on  men's  ignorances  and  infirmities,  who  ad- 
vertise themselves  and  live  in  wait  for  the  vic- 
tims of  sin,  error,  and  disease,  in  the  hope  of 
coining  their  credulity  and  wretchedness  into 
dollars  and  cents.  In  hell  there  cannot  be  so 
revolting  a  spectacle. 

It  is  difficult  to  exaggerate  the  power  of 
brave,  cheerful,  happy,  hopeful  thoughts.  They 


Il6  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

create  for  the  soul  an  atmosphere  wherein  it 
breathes  health,  courage,  and  joy. 

In  the  degree  in  which  individuals,  in  which 
social  aggregates  grow  in  intelligence  and  vir- 
tue, the  less  men  labor  and  the  more  they 
work. 

The  teaching  of  morality  fails  to  touch  the 
heart.  There  is  in  it  no  inspiration,  no  power  to 
renew  or  transform,  no  creative  spirit,  no  sense 
of  exaltation.  It  is  only  when  religious  faith, 
hope,  and  love  shine  like  heavenly  lights  on  the 
soul,  that  man's  whole  nature  is  refreshed  as 
by  the  breath  of  God.  In  the  great  crises  of 
individuals  and  of  peoples  it  is  most  clearly 
revealed  that  without  this  help  from  on  high 
human  life  would  fail  utterly. 

Keep  thy  mind  and  heart  fixed  on  what  is 
absolutely  and  forever  true  and  fair,  and  little 
by  little  light  and  love  shall  suffuse  thy  whole 
being. 

A  man's  joy  and  strength  spring  from  the 
things  he  habitually  contemplates  and  desires, 
from  the  quality  of  his  love,  which  is  the  root 
of  all  virtue  and  the  test  of  human  worth. 

Good-will  to  men  and  peace  to  men  of  good- 
will —  this  is  the  heavenly  message ;  but  there 
is  need  of  caution  lest  in  becoming  all  things 
to  all,  one  lose  individuality,  forfeit  the  power 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  1 17 

of  complete  self-devotion  to  truth,  which  is 
the  sole  secure  and  eternal  foundation  of 
love. 

There  is  no  one  whose  opinions  and  conduct 
are  not  determined  and  controlled  by  his  ideas 
of  pleasure  and  self-interest;  and  since  these 
ideas  diverge  and  easily  become  opposite,  toler- 
ance is  wisdom.  But  when  there  is  question  of 
what  we  believe  to  be  indispensable  to  human 
welfare,  we  cannot  but  long  and  strive,  if  we  are 
good,  to  make  all  men  partakers  of  the  divine 
blessing. 

All  existence  is  what  it  has  become.  Become, 
if  thou  wouldst  be;  cease  not  to  grow,  if  thou 
wouldst  not  fall  to  decay. 

Strength,  passion,  endurance,  and  convic- 
tion move  us  more  than  arguments.  They  con- 
stitute the  orator's  charm  and  endow  him  with 
persuasiveness. 

Please  if  thou  wouldst  persuade. 

Were  ceremony  done  away  the  race  would 
sink  to  lower  levels,  but  woman  would  be  the 
greatest  sufferer. 

They  who  are  conscious  of  their  integrity  and 
worth  have  no  resentments. 

When  we  look  on  the  lowly  graves  of  great 
philosophers  and  poets  we  are  made  aware  that 
man's  home  is  in  invisible  worlds. 


Il8  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

We  do  not  pity  those  we  envy,  nor  hate 
whom  we  despise. 

Faith  and  works,  like  the  sun's  light  and  heat, 
are  inseparable. 

The  honest  expression  of  the  good-will  we 
bear  one  another  makes  no  small  part  of  life's 
happiness. 

We  are  creatures  of  impulse,  passion,  and 
habit,  and  were  we  wholly  rational  life's  burden 
would  be  too  heavy  to  be  borne. 

Whoever  gives  right  utterance  to  truth, 
whether  he  be  poet,  philosopher,  historian,  or 
essayist,  may  publish  what  he  has  written,  not 
doubting  that  it  will  make  its  way  in  the 
world. 

Thou  wouldst  not  wade  through  sewers.  It 
is  more  defiling  to  dip  the  mind  into  the  scandals 
on  which  gossip  battens. 

The  strenuous  life  ends  in  drudgery. 

Give  heed  to  thyself.  Hadst  thou  thy  blood 
from  Alexander  or  Caesar,  if  thou  art  worthless 
thy  high  descent  would  but  show  to  what  depths 
thou  art  fallen.  Though  thou  count  thy  money 
by  tens  of  millions,  if  thou  art  ignorant,  unjust, 
or  impure  thy  riches  will  but  minister  to  thy 
base  passions  or  barbaric  pride. 

Happiness  is  pleasure  of  which  one  need  never 
repent. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Where  there  is  true  piety  there  is  a  brave  and 
cheerful  spirit,  a  generous  and  loving  heart. 

The  virtuous  would  seem  to  think  that  they 
have  a  privilege  to  make  themselves  disagree- 
able, whereas  in  them  ill-temper  is  doubly  a 
vice. 

The  highest  rewards  are  bestowed  by  what 
best  inspires,  exalts,  purifies,  enlarges,  and 
strengthens  the  mind. 

To  find  ourselves  in  the  world  of  matter  we 
must  refer  to  fixed  points,  —  east  or  west,  north 
or  south,  zenith  or  nadir,  and  whoever  has  had 
power  so  to  impress  multitudes  that  when  they 
pray  they  turn  to  some  spot  consecrated  by  him, 
has  founded  for  them  a  religion. 

As  the  world  of  which  the  child  is  conscious 
changes  into  that  the  youth  feels  and  loves, 
which,  in  turn,  gives  way  to  that  of  the  mature ; 
so  the  aspirations  and  hopes  of  a  people,  of  man- 
kind, are  subject  to  the  law  of  transformation; 
and  as  the  man  cannot  return  to  live  in  the  things 
of  his  childhood,  neither  can  a  people. 

The  better  sort  are  driven  back  on  themselves, 
away  from  the  noise  and  strife  of  the  crowd; 
for  only  in  quietude  and  remoteness  are  pure 
thought  and  love  possible.  It  were  not  rash  to 
say  that  the  purpose  of  education  is  to  accustom 
us  to  live  in  our  own  minds  and  consciences. 


I2O  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

The  finest  natures  are  the  most  lonely.  The 
genius  seeks  the  solitude  where  none  but  high 
spirits  dwell.  The  saint  loves  only  the  company 
of  God  and  of  holy  thoughts.  Among  animals 
the  noblest  are  the  most  solitary.  Nevertheless 
human  qualities  can  be  awakened  and  developed 
in  society  only;  in  other  words,  through  com- 
panionship and  the  interchange  of  good  offices. 
The  warp  and  woof  of  our  life  are  made  by 
society.  From  it  we  receive  language,  from  it 
religion,  from  it  institutions  and  arts.  Of  it 
and  in  it  we  are  born  and  grow  and  become 
capable  of  thought  and  love.  One  could  never 
rise  to  intelligence  and  conduct  in  isolation, 
could  never  learn  to  be  generous  or  kind  or  just 
or  helpful, —  in  a  word,  could  never  reach  man's 
estate.  But  one  cannot  become  a  man  in  the 
true  sense,  if  he  live  much  in  the  company  of 
his  fellows;  for  unless  he  often  withdraw  into 
himself  he  can  neither  know  nor  love  the  best, 
can  be  neither  holy  nor  wise,  can  neither  rightly 
live  nor  rightly  die.  The  noblest  keep  aloof 
and  cherish  solitude,  not  alone  because  their 
thoughts  are  tyrannical  and  over-mastering,  but 
because  they  feel  that  in  society  what  they  best 
know  and  most  love  is  as  the  witchery  of  sweet 
music  to  the  deaf,  and  as  blended  shadings  of 
softest  colors  to  the  blind. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  121 

Thou  art  little  known.  The  great  world 
heeds  thee  not  at  all.  In  brief  time  not  so  much 
as  the  echo  of  a  name  shall  remain  of  thee.  But 
the  great  world  itself  is  hardly  more  enduring 
than  the  crossings  and  dyings  of  the  tribes  of 
insects.  In  short  while  all  who  now  inhabit  the 
earth  will  have  sunk  into  it  and  into  oblivion. 
Of  God  thou  art  born;  live  to  Him. 

Brief  is  whatever  comes  to  end. 

They  whom  failure  can  discourage  or  suc- 
cess make  self-complacent  are  but  common  men. 

All  educators  have  grave  responsibilities,  but 
the  gravest  have  those  who  form  the  men  that 
are  to  counsel,  guide,  and  govern  their  fellows, 
not  in  their  temporal  affairs,  but  in  the  things 
which  concern  character  and  conduct,  —  the 
welfare  of  the  soul,  for  whose  hurt  and  loss  a 
universe  gained  could  not  compensate. 

It  is  to  his  freedom  that  man  owes  the  power 
to  improve  both  himself  and  his  environment; 
and  therefore  the  foes  of  liberty  are  the  enemies 
of  mankind. 

Where  right  is  identified  with  conformity  to 
custom,  the  source  of  noble  life  runs  dry,  while 
individuals  and  peoples  fall  to  decay.  Custom 
makes  weaklings  and  cowards,  unless  it  be 
ceaselessly  revitalized  by  a  current  of  fresh 
thought  and  love. 


122  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Incredibly  great  is  the  power  of  affirmation. 
Whatever  the  whole  world  may  agree  to  assert 
with  ceaseless  iteration,  the  world  will  come  to 
believe  to  be  true. 

No  great  work  is  possible  where  the  heart 
does  not  go  with  the  head  and  the  hand. 

Do  not  love  me,  but  be  my  friend. 

For  the  good  life  is  good;  for  the  evil  it  is 
evil.  If,  then,  thou  love  thy  fellow-men,  do 
what  lies  in  thy  power  to  make  them  virtuous. 

When  we  have  learned  to  desire  nothing 
which  others  can  give,  we  have  entered  the 
way  of  peace. 

It  is  so  impossible  to  satisfy  man  with  what 
is  sufficient,  that  we  may  say  the  superfluous 
alone  is  necessary. 

Inspiration  is  given  only  to  the  ceaselessly 
self-active. 

Death  rather  than  dishonor  is  a  true  saying; 
but  self-inflicted,  it  is  dishonor. 

If  thou  wouldst  be  a  teacher  continue  to  teach 
thyself. 

Indigestible  and  too  copious  food,  more  even 
than  excessive  drink,  destroys  love,  friendship, 
and  all  the  peace  and  charm  of  domestic  life. 

Whoever  is  a  liar,  a  poltroon,  a  thief,  or  a 
lecher,  is  plebeian ;  since  a  truthful,  fearless,  up- 
right, and  chaste  spirit  alone  gives  distinction. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  12$ 

Though  belief  in  the  inspiration  of  the  Scrip- 
tures should  perish,  faith  in  the  Eternal  Father, 
in  Christ  as  His  most  perfect  earthly  embodi- 
ment, and  in  the  Church  —  as  the  power  which 
more  than  all  others  has  the  abiding  gift  to 
nourish  lowly-mindedness,  purity  of  heart,  and 
hunger  for  righteousness  —  will  survive ;  for 
there  must  always  be  many,  and  of  the  best, 
whom  nor  sexual  pleasure,  nor  wealth,  nor  high 
place,  nor  science,  nor  culture  will  strongly  ap- 
peal to  or  satisfy;  and  they  will  look  above  to 
the  Father  in  heaven,  will  strive  to  walk  in  the 
footsteps  of  His  Son,  and  will  follow  and  love 
the  Church  which  perpetuates  His  teaching  and 
which  keeps  His  spirit  alive  even  in  those  who 
know  her  not. 

They  who  have  health,  wealth,  and  fame  may 
still  be  wretched,  but  the  loving  and  pure  of 
heart  are  never  without  consolation. 

Spend  not  thy  time  in  striving  to  explain  dif- 
ficulties, but  turn  thy  whole  thought  to  God,  to 
all  truth,  beauty,  and  goodness. 

It  is  impossible  to  know  why  God  is,  since 
for  His  being  there  is  no  wherefore.  He  is  in- 
explicable and  unfathomable,  and  so  are  His 
works. 

We  act  as  we  feel  and  as  we  think.  Let  the 
educator  therefore  bend  all  his  strength  to  cul- 


124  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

tivate  in  his  pupils  the  power  of  right  thinking 
and  right  feeling. 

A  man  is  worth,  says  Marcus  Aurelius,  just 
so  much  as  the  things  are  worth  about  which 
he  busies  himself. 

Be  not  curious  about  the  business  or  the  faults 
of  others,  but  attend  to  thyself. 

Learn  many  things,  but  concentrate  thy 
strength  on  some  one  subject  of  genuine  value 
and  interest. 

Good  health  and  good  books,  with  a  taste  for 
reading,  are  all  that  is  required  to  make  life 
rich  and  delightful. 

The  best  education,  says  Plato,  is  that  which 
gives  the  mind  and  the  body  all  the  force,  all 
the  beauty,  all  the  perfection  of  which  they  are 
capable. 

Experience  is  the  source  of  knowledge,  and 
what  is  communicated  becomes  ours  only  when 
we  have  wrought  it  into  our  life-experience. 

They  who  live  in  the  public  eye  are  made 
unpopular  by  what  they  say,  more  surely  than 
by  what  they  do. 

As  wisdom  is  a  defence,  says  the  Bible,  so 
is  money  a  defence;  but  learning  and  wisdom 
excel  in  this,  that  they  give  life  to  him  that 
possesseth  them.  And  again  —  God  loveth  none 
but  him  that  dwelleth  with  wisdom. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  125 

There  is  no  rule  by  which  we  may  determine 
the  worth  of  an  individual  or  of  a  people;  for 
the  soul  of  a  people,  like  that  of  an  individual, 
is  infinitely  complex,  and  its  value  can  be  rightly 
estimated  only  when  the  thousand  circumstances 
by  which  it  has  been  constituted  and  moulded 
are  thoroughly  understood  and  appreciated. 

Give  me,  O  God,  a  pure  heart  and  true 
thoughts. 

Even  great  literature  but  feebly  utters  the 
thoughts  and  emotions  which  God  and  His  uni- 
verse awaken.  The  written  word  is  like  the 
body,  which  in  giving  a  habitation  to  the  soul, 
impedes  and  confines.  To  be  silently  good  and 
heroic  is  a  nobler  thing  than  to  express  thoughts 
and  sentiments,  which,  however  fine  and  true, 
are  rarely  the  voice  of  one's  deepest  nature. 
Thought  and  feeling  are  primarily  for  strength 
and  guidance,  not  for  literary  ends. 

A  true  man  is  content  when  he  is  tolerated 
by  those  about  him;  but  in  the  face  of  what- 
ever opposition  he  will  persevere  in  the  way  he 
has  chosen  and  knows  to  be  right. 

Nature  forces  us  to  care  for  food  and  drink 
and  shelter,  but  is  indifferent  to  truth,  good- 
ness, and  beauty;  and  when  man  is  abandoned 
wholly  to  her  sway,  he  does  not  rise  above  a 
merely  animal  existence. 


J26  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

The  farther  we  advance  in  science  the  more 
clearly  we  perceive  that  without  faith  we  should 
sink  into  impotence  and  despair. 

Men  differ  in  their  prejudices  and  passions 
more  than  in  their  thoughts,  in  which,  when 
feeling  and  self-interest  are  eliminated,  they 
easily  agree,  as  may  be  seen  in  their  readiness 
to  consent  to  truths  which  have  no  application 
to  life. 

If  Caesar  and  his  cook  have  alike  been  ab- 
sorbed into  the  unconscious,  of  what  benefit  is 
it  to  the  one  that  his  name  is  known,  or  what 
disadvantage  to  the  other  that  he  is  wholly  for- 
gotten? Fame  is  as  unsubstantial  as  our  other 
vanities. 

When  I  recall  the  many  things  which  have 
annoyed  and  worried  me,  but  which  are  now 
as  though  they  had  never  been,  my  present 
troubles  grow  lighter,  and  I  scarcely  think  of 
them  at  all. 

Fame  hovers  over  the  brows  of  those  who 
look  beyond  her. 

Whoever  imagines  himself  to  be  of  special 
worth  is  unimportant. 

We  are  not  impressed  by  seeing  another  do 
what  we  can  easily  perform.  The  wonder- 
ful is  that  which  lies  beyond  our  reach  or 
comprehension. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  I2/ 

The  emphatic  utterance  of  platitudes  most 
surely  wins  the  applause  of  the  crowd. 

It  is  not  easy  to  repent  of  anything  that  has 
given  us  truer  insight. 

Man  is  the  most  mutable  and  therefore  at 
once  the  most  perfectible  and  the  most  cor- 
ruptible of  beings. 

Our  pleasures  shorten  our  lives  and  make 
them  miserable. 

As  it  is  a  father's  glory  to  see  himself  sur- 
passed by  his  sons,  so  whoever  teaches  or  gov- 
erns should  deem  it  the  highest  privilege  to 
gather  about  him  and  form  a  following  of  men 
superior  to  himself. 

There  is  no  new  wisdom ;  and  the  best  genius 
itself  can  do  is  to  give  to  the  old  truths  the 
freshness  and  charm  of  novelty,  that  they  who 
need  courage,  discretion,  and  enlightenment 
may  be  drawn  to  examine  and  consider.  When 
left  to  ourselves,  we  turn  from  the  teachers  of 
wisdom  to  the  society  of  those  who  entice  us 
to  a  frivolous  and  aimless  existence,  and  this  is 
inevitable  for  beings  for  whom  it  is  easier  to 
sink  than  to  rise. 

Our  counsels  have  weight  only  when  they 
express  what  we  have  meditated,  experienced, 
and  habitually  practised.  Hence  in  the  wisdom 
of  the  young  there  is  an  element  of  unreality. 


128  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Repression  results  in  weakness,  as  disuse 
atrophies;  and  weakness  is  inferiority  and 
servitude. 

When  the  swiftly  flying  years  have  stolen 
our  strength  and  our  friends,  that  which  still 
makes  life's  garden  fair  and  fragrant  is  the 
memory  of  the  smiles  and  the  flowers  we  loved 
when  the  springtime  of  childhood  and  youth 
bloomed  about  us.  It  was  then  the  treasure- 
house  of  our  hearts  was  stored  with  the 
priceless  gifts  which  we  cannot  lose  while  con- 
sciousness remains. 

Gifts  are  precious  in  the  degree  in  which  they 
are  tokens  of  love. 

To  live  is  to  act;  and  if  we  are  not  busy 
doing  good,  we  needs  must  do  evil. 

It  is  enough  to  know  that  a  pure,  loving,  and 
helpful  life  is  the  only  right  life.  Whether  it 
be  the  only  happy  life  it  is  not  necessary  to 
inquire. 

Strive  to  make  thyself  worthy.  If  thou  suc- 
ceed thou  hast  the  best  life  can  give. 

Nearly  all  we  are  and  have  we  owe  to  our 
fellow-men;  but  to  God  we  owe  all.  Our  first 
duty,  therefore,  is  to  love  and  serve  Him,  and 
our  second  to  love  and  serve  our  fellow-men. 

To  the  youth  it  seems  a  divine,  almost  an 
impossible  thing,  that  he  should  ever  become 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  129 

a  fountain-head  of  wisdom  and  strength  for 
others;  but  the  foreboding,  however  vague,  of 
such  good  fortune,  exalts  his  imagination  and 
spurs  him  on  to  persevering  effort. 

The  desire  to  please  is  often  all  that  is  re- 
quired to  make  one's  self  agreeable. 

To  know  where  the  best  may  be  had  brings 
it  within  our  reach,  if  we  are  not  ignoble. 

There  is  no  surer  mark  of  mental  progress 
than  an  increasing  unwillingness  to  deny;  for, 
as  knowledge  grows,  the  boundaries  of  the  un- 
known are  seen  to  widen.  The  wise,  therefore, 
while  they  affirm  that  of  which  they  are  certain, 
are  silent  where  the  less  enlightened  are  clamor- 
ous with  assertion. 

Without  sacrifice  noble  life  is  impossible  — 
the  sacrifice  of  vulgar  desires  and  easy  ways, 
that  what  is  difficult  and  higher  may  be  at- 
tained. But  all  sacrifice  is  meaningless  if  the 
beginning  and  the  end  is  blank  unconsciousness. 
One  may  possibly  hold  that  there  is  no  truth, 
but  who  believes  in  truth  must  believe  in  God. 

They  who  in  every  circumstance  of  doubt  or 
temptation  ask  themselves  what  the  Saviour 
would  bid,  and  hearken  to  the  divine  voice,  be- 
come not  only  wise  and  happy,  but  holy  and 
blessed. 

In  the  midst  of  rich  pastures  and  the  pleasant 
9 


130  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

air  the  animal  is  content ;  but  for  man  faith  and 
thought,  hope  and  love  must  spring,  or  a  para- 
dise would  become  a  waste.  If  he  himself  be 
ignoble  no  circumstance  can  redeem  him  from 
wretchedness. 

The  most  fortunate  are  they  who  most  com- 
pletely upbuild  their  being  to  the  full  measure 
of  their  endowments;  and  whatever  hinders 
this,  whether  it  be  money  or  pleasure  or  place, 
or  poverty  or  friends  or  wife  and  children,  is 
evil. 

Thoughts,  desires,  hopes,  and  longings  are 
food  or  poison,  breed  health  or  disease. 

Introspection  leads  to  conceit  or  despondency. 
Have  good-will;  do  what  thou  canst,  and  let 
thy  inner  being  be  moulded  by  ceaseless  right 
endeavor. 

Political  liberty  is  opportunity  given  to  slaves 
to  free  themselves  from  within  by  cleaving  to 
truth  and  love. 

Think  of  the  infinitude  of  things  possible  but 
unaccomplished,  and  thou  shalt  find  no  great 
difference  between  the  work  of  a  mechanic  and 
that  of  a  sublime  genius.  It  is  all  but  a  chil- 
dren's heaping  of  sand  to  stay  the  incoming 
tide  of  the  great  ocean.  Free  thyself,  then,  of 
envy  and  conceit. 
v  Growth  is  increase  in  quantity,  development 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  131 

increase  in  quality  of  life.  The  means  of  growth 
are  food  and  exercise;  the  means  of  develop- 
ment, use  and  self-activity. 

The  lower  a  being  is  bedded,  the  feebler  the 
impulse  to  ascend  to  higher  things.  The  ani- 
mal, the  ignorant,  and  the  indolent  are  content, 
while  they  who  live  in  the  mind  and  in  the 
conscience  are  self-urged  to  rise  above  them- 
selves. It  is  not  possible  to  believe  that  those 
who  are  immersed  in  the  mire  of  degrading 
passions  should  understand  their  condition  and 
remain  what  they  are.  The  fool  knows  not  his 
folly,  nor  the  lecher  his  filthiness. 

Wisdom  consists  in  a  large  measure  in  re- 
fraining from  attempting  too  much,  and  in  not 
busying  one's  self  with  what  one  was  not  born 
to  do. 

The  young  will  tolerate  no  opinions  they  do 
not  accept,  but  would  set  the  whole  world  right. 
When  experience  has  made  them  wise  they  are 
prepared  to  listen  to  all  conceivable  inanities 
and  absurdities.  Oh,  give  me  back  my  youth 
with  its  boundless  faith  in  the  might  of  a  single 
soul  that  trusts  itself  and  God,  and  feels  the 
irresistible  power  of  those  who  wholly  believe 
in  Him.  On  the  surface  and  momentarily  it 
may  be  a  mistaken  confidence,  but  it  is 
grounded  on  the  central  heart  of  being. 


132  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

God  and  the  other  world,  says  Kant,  are 
the  sole  end  of  all  our  philosophical  inquiries, 
and  did  not  the  ideas  of  God  and  the  other 
world  involve  and  embrace  morality,  they  were 
worthless. 

The  ideal  of  civilization  is  the  making  each 
individual  a  personality.  To  the  accomplish- 
ment of  this  a  general  spread  of  culture  can 
contribute  little  unless  it  be  reinforced  by  a 
vital  faith  and  the  nobler  passions;  for  no  one 
is  a  personality  unless  he  is  so  without  circum- 
stance, in  virtue  of  the  eternal  principles  which 
are  the  foundation  of  right  human  life. 

It  is  with  opinion  as  with  fashion  —  what 
pleases  to-day  will  appear  ridiculous  to-mor- 
row. Writers,  therefore,  who  give  expression 
but  to  the  passing  whim  are  as  ephemeral  as 
milliners.  The  trade  is  imperishable;  the  in- 
dividuals, like  insects,  live  for  a  season. 

Could  one  know  the  history  of  mankind  in 
all  its  details  as  God  knows  it,  it  is  a  question 
whether  he  should  most  pity  and  abhor,  or  most 
admire  and  love. 

As  great  wealth  or  great  prosperity  corrupts 
individuals,  so  does  it  undermine  states  and 
churches. 

An  earthquake  which  in  a  moment  destroys 
thousands  of  lives  does  not  arouse  indignation, 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  133 

because  it  is  felt  to  be  due  to  causes  beyond 
human  control.  Why  then,  since  it  is  not  in 
thy  power  to  prevent  the  crimes  and  sins  which 
make  earth  a  hell,  shouldst  thou  permit  thyself 
to  be  disturbed  by  them  ?  Take  heed  rather  that 
thou  become  the  master  of  thy  own  passions. 
To  do  this  thou  must  not  only  pray  and  watch, 
but  work  patiently  and  lovingly  for  the  good  of 
thy  fellows. 

What  the  many  crave  is  in  the  greatest  de- 
mand ;  and  they  never  crave  the  best,  not  even 
the  best  of  sensible  things.  The  common  man, 
however  much  he  be  brought  into  contact  with 
the  perfect,  loves  but  the  common. 

Here  is  the  whole  race  of  man  —  its  best  rep- 
resentatives at  the  least  —  drawn  onward  and 
upward  these  many  thousand  years;  and  yet 
when  the  strongest  and  the  most  enlightened 
minds  would  look  into  the  only  permanently 
interesting  issues  of  life  and  death,  they  can 
but  hope  and  believe. 

Art  thou  a  mere  animal  born  to  be  the  slave 
of  instinct  and  appetite,  and  not  rather  a  child 
of  God  whom  He  has  put  in  His  world  to  be 
guided  and  governed  by  reason  and  conscience  ? 

There  is  no  more  awful  mystery  than  the 
power  of  sin  to  blunt  the  moral  sense  and 
deaden  conscience.  Our  responsibility  is  greater 


134  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

than  we  can  know,  and  the  attitude  of  the  frivo- 
lous toward  life  is  irrational. 

However  fair,  amiable,  and  innocent  one  may 
have  been,  he  loses  interest  for  us  once  he  is 
dead,  unless  his  life  and  thought  in  some  way 
reinforce  and  illumine  our  own.  The  beautiful 
are  remembered  as  dreams  are  remembered; 
the  great  wrestlers  with  truth  and  goodness 
stamp  their  impress  on  the  world. 

It  is  not  so  much  to  his  qualities  as  to  the 
way  in  which  they  are  blended  that  a  man  owes 
his  character.  The  balance  and  the  temper  are 
decisive.  Character  is  completely  formed  will. 

The  more  the  individual  asserts  his  impor- 
tance the  less  seriously  is  he  taken.  Had 
conceit  inflated  Shakespeare  he  would  be  ridic- 
ulous, as  Hugo,  in  spite  of  his  genius,  is  often 
ridiculous. 

Truths  uttered  in  rhythm  make  a  deeper  and 
more  lasting  impression.  The  poets  were  the 
first  teachers  of  wisdom  and  shall  forever  be 
the  most  delightful. 

Religious  insight  is  the  outcome  of  the  ac- 
tivity of  man's  entire  spiritual  nature,  in  which 
God  is  revealed  at  once  to  the  mind,  to  the  con- 
science, and  to  the  heart. 

They  who  have  best  insight  are  most  highly 
favored.  It  is  a  privilege  too  to  be  able  to 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  135 

express  what  one  sees  and  feels,  for  so  he 
becomes  the  benefactor  of  the  sweetest  and 
gentlest  souls. 

The  end  of  religious  and  moral  inquiry  is 
not  to  learn  what  religion  and  virtue  are,  but 
to  make  one's  self  religious  and  virtuous. 


V. 


THE  speaker  and  the  writer  attract  hearers 
and  readers,  not  so  much  by  the  truth  they 
utter  as  by  the  pleasure  they  give.  Hence  when 
there  is  simply  question  of  success,  manner  is 
more  than  matter.  The  aim  should  be  to  say 
mere  nothings  charmingly.  -One  may  get  at  the 
secret  by  listening  to  the  prattle  of  a  bright, 
beautiful,  and  unspoilt  child.  How  easily  fair 
young  girls  give  delight,  though  they  talk  sheer 
nonsense,  and  when  left  to  themselves  they  talk 
little  else.  Mature  and  wise  men  are  carried 
away  by  their  grace  and  babble,  and  they  en- 
snare youths  as  hunters  hares.  It  is  an  airy 
and  indefinable  illusiveness  which  takes  us  all 
captive  —  the  haze  that  covers  mountains  far 
away,  the  dreamlike  colors  of  sunset  skies,  the 
evanescent  hues  of  flowers  that  fade  while  they 
bloom. 

The  purest  source  of  the  pleasure  a  writer 
feels  in  the  moments  of  highest  inspiration  lies 
in  the  consciousness  of  the  delight  he  shall  give. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  137 

One  might  think  it  desirable  to  be  able  quickly 
to  forget  what  we  have  suffered.  Pain,  how- 
ever, is  nearly  always  a  penalty  imposed  by 
ignorance  and  folly;  and  to  bear  the  smart  in 
mind  should  be  a  help  to  wisdom  and  virtue. 
We  find,  in  fact,  that  the  young  who  best  re- 
member the  punishments  received  are  the  most 
docile.  Does  not  the  memory  of  the  sufferings 
we  associate  with  wrong-doing  increase  the 
pleasure  we  derive  from  doing  right? 

He  who  sees  his  work  grow  painfully,  al- 
most imperceptibly  day  by  day,  learns  the  divine 
wisdom  there  is  in  industry  and  perseverance. 
If  the  inventor  must  fail  a  thousand  times  before 
he  succeed,  if  the  discoverer  must  grope  help- 
lessly and  unwearyingly  until  at  last  a  new 
truth  or  a  new  world  dawn  upon  him,  how  shall 
any  one  hope  to  do  aught  that  is  excellent,  un- 
less he  have  infinite  patience  and  take  infinite 
pains? 

If  thy  knowledge  weakens  moral  purpose  it  is 
false  knowledge,  and  therefore  it  is  false  if  it 
undermines  faith  in  God. 

Desire  not  to  appear  to  be  beautiful  or  wise 
or  virtuous  or  aught  that  may  attract  admira- 
tion, but  strive  earnestly  and  ceaselessly  to  be- 
come all  that  goes  to  the  making  of  a  fair  and 
noble  personality. 


138  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

The  opinions  and  words  of  others  concerning 
thee  are  no  concern  of  thine;  thy  one  business 
being  so  to  think  and  do  as  to  approve  thyself 
to  thy  conscience  and  to  God. 

The  greatest  and  noblest  have  been  formed 
by  adversity  and  failure,  not  by  prosperity  and 
success. 

Great  love  can  teach  us  all  that  suffering  and 
sorrow  can  teach. 

As  a  true  man  is  helped  by  foes  not  less  than 
by  friends,  so  is  every  right  cause. 

To  seek  to  stay  the  advance  of  any  kind  of 
truth  is  to  make  one's  self  an  adversary  of  God 
and  a  hinderer  of  human  welfare. 

They  who  turn  from  the  light  of  religion 
quickly  lose  sight  of  the  rights  of  man. 

There  is  in  living  beings  no  stable  equilib- 
rium. They  grow  or  they  decay,  physically, 
mentally,  morally,  religiously.  They  rise  or  fall, 
advance  or  recede.  Hence  no  one  is  good  who 
is  not  becoming  better,  no  one  is  wise  whose 
wisdom  is  not  increasing.  Hence  too  the  in- 
stinctive impulse  which  drives  man  to  make 
progress  in  whatever  he  sets  his  heart  on, 
whether  it  be  getting  riches  or  fame  or  power 
or  knowledge  or  skill  or  virtue. 

The  ideal  is  Truth  and  Love;  but  in  the 
darkness  in  which  mortal  life  is  shrouded  that 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  139 

which  is  most  needful  and  most  precious  is 
Faith  and  Love. 

They  alone  are  wise  who,  rising  above  the 
world  of  the  senses,  accustom  themselves  to  live 
with  truth,  goodness,  and  beauty.  That  is  what 
Plato  means  when  he  says,  that  to  learn  how  to 
live  one  must  know  how  to  die.  That  is  the  law 
of  progress  which  is  a  quittifig  of  lower  things 
that  the  higher  may  be  attained,  a  seeking  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  first,  not  doubting  that  they 
who  dwell  therein  have  whatever  is  needful  or 
desirable. 

I  had  rather  be  in  hell,  says  Tauler,  and  have 
God,  than  in  heaven  without  Him. 

One  who  is  acquainted  with  the  history  and 
philosophy  of  life,  religion,  art,  and  science, 
cannot  contemplate  the  universe  from  the  stand- 
point of  the  multitude;  yet  like  them  he  must 
live  by  faith,  hope,  and  love,  must  pursue  what 
he  can  neither  comprehend  nor  fully  possess; 
and  his  worth  is  measured  not  by  his  knowledge, 
but  by  the  faith,  hope,  and  love  which  are  the 
springs  of  his  life. 

When  we  recall  the  dead  whom  we  have 
known  and  loved,  what  we  think  of  is  not 
the  body,  but  the  soul,  —  the  personality  and 
character. 

The  decisive  consideration  is  not  what  thy 


I4O  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

thought  or  deed  or  the  sum  of  thy  life-accom- 
plishment is  worth,  but  what  thou  thyself  art  in 
virtue  of  the  faith,  hope,  and  love  by  which  thou 
livest. 

Again  and  again  my  body  has  perished  while 
I  myself  still  live.  Why  then  shall  I  not  survive 
when  finally  it  has  lost  the  power  to  remake 
itself? 

To  think  is  to  look  within,  as  into  a  vast  and 
unfathomable  ocean,  which  is  one's  self  and  yet 
not  one's  self,  from  which  silently  and  as  by 
stealth  forms  of  truth  and  beauty  rise  and  float 
a  moment,  and  then  pass  unperceived  except  by 
the  most  serious  and  attentive  minds. 

He  alone  is  a  true  and  good  man  who  makes 
the  formation  of  his  character  the  guiding  pur- 
pose of  his  life. 

Happiness,  says  Epictetus,  lies  in  ourselves, 
in  true  freedom,  in  the  conquest  of  every  ig- 
noble fear,  in  perfect  self-government,  in  the 
power  of  contentment  and  peace,  and  in  the  tran- 
quil flow  of  life,  even  in  poverty,  exile,  disease, 
and  the  very  shadow  of  death. 

They  are  beautiful  on  whose  countenances  a 
pure,  loving,  brave,  and  cheerful  spirit  has  left 
its  impress. 

Title  and  place  are  attractive  to  the  immature 
and  vulgar.  A  noble  mind,  if  he  have  ambi- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  141 

tion,  is  impelled  by  the  love  of  excellence  and 
power. 

The  wise  understand  that  it  is  only  in  stoop- 
ing to  the  little  things  of  life  and  nature,  and 
in  studying  them  with  patient  industry,  that 
the  secret  of  the  greatest  is  learned;  and  they 
are  therefore  lowly-minded,  reverent,  mild,  and 
serviceable. 

They  whom  the  fear  of  failure  can  deter  never 
do  the  greatest  things. 

Should  those  about  us  agree  to  think  us  mad 
it  would  be  difficult  to  keep  faith  in  one's  own 
sanity.  So  feeble  is  reason,  so  little  does  it  suf- 
fice to  steady  thought  and  control  imagination, 
it  is  not  surprising  that  we  should  become  the 
victims  of  numbers,  dollars,  and  votes,  of  the 
things  that  may  be  weighed  and  counted,  holding 
them  to  be  the  symbols  and  equivalents  of  wis- 
dom and  virtue,  of  truth  and  love. 

They  who  imagine  that  not  to  do  what  can  be 
reckoned  in  currency  is  to  do  nothing  are  the 
shallowest  of  men.  What  brings  wisdom  and 
virtue  has  the  highest  value,  is  above  all  price. 
For  the  multitude,  however,  wisdom  and  virtue 
are  hardly  possible,  unless  their  labor  can  be 
weighed  against  coin. 

The  making  good  use  of  leisure  brings  a  two- 
fold reward,  —  happiness  and  success.  It  is 


142  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

the  secret  of  intellectual  and  moral  heroes,  of 
sages  and  saints. 

How  often  I  hear  it  said,  the  world  heeds  us 
not,  as  though  it  had  ever  heeded  the  wise  and 
good!  To  Socrates  it  gave  the  cup  of  poison, 
and  to  the  Blessed  Saviour  the  cross. 

They  threaten  who  are  afraid  or  who  doubt 
their  ability.  Threaten  no  one,  says  Chilo ;  that 
is  a  woman's  trick. 

We  cannot  act  except  from  moment  to  mo- 
ment ;  and  we  cannot  act  wisely  therefore  except 
by  doing  well  the  thing  the  moment  assigns. 

Accustom  thyself  to  believe  that  what  thou 
canst  not  do  justly  and  honorably  thou  canst  not 
do  at  all. 

It  is  not  possible  to  fathom  the  mystery  of 
evil ;  but  goodness  is  plain  even  to  simple  minds. 
Love  it  then  and  rejoice  with  all  the  good,  not 
suffering  thyself  to  be  disturbed  or  discouraged 
by  the  deeds  of  the  godless. 

The  faithful  performance  of  the  duties  thy 
office  imposes  gives  thee  the  right  to  leisure  for 
study  and  for  the  diffusion  of  peace  and  joy 
among  those  thou  livest  with. 

The  three  hardest  things,  says  Chilo,  are  to 
keep  secrets,  to  make  good  use  of  leisure,  and  to 
be  able  to  bear  injustice. 

If  neither  wealth  nor  poverty  is  to  be  desired, 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  143 

so  neither  is  great  learning  nor  great  ignorance. 
But  if  we  ourselves  are  true  and  loving,  the 
more  abundant  our  knowledge  and  riches,  the 
more  beneficent  and  the  worthier  we  shall  be- 
come, though  doubtless  our  lives  shall  be  the 
more  filled  with  care  and  labor. 

The  loss  and  pain  which  issue  in  wisdom  and 
virtue  are  made  gain  and  joy. 

Obey  the  laws,  if  only  to  keep  thyself  from 
disgrace  and  trouble. 

The  things  we  most  rebel  against  we  accept 
without  a  murmur  when  we  plainly  recognize 
that  they  are  near  and  inevitable. 

So  many  whom  I  have  known  and  loved  are 
dead.  If  I  survive,  it  is  to  become  and  do  good. 

Religion  is  not  a  system  of  thought  to  be  ac- 
quiesced in  mechanically ;  it  is  a  stream  of  truth 
and  love  which  must  ceaselessly  refresh  and 
enliven  the  whole  inner  being.  Received  merely 
as  a  formal  doctrine  it  produces  no  effect.  If  it 
is  to  reform  and  recreate,  it  must  grow  within 
us  as  a  germ  of  divine  life,  which  to  bear  the 
best  fruit  must  have  assiduous  care  and  nurture. 

He  who  knows  that  he  is  born  of  the  Eternal 
cannot  rest  content  with  any  temporal  condition ; 
for  the  fact  that  it  must  come  to  end  makes  it 
vain  in  his  eyes.  So  one  who  is  capable  of 
thought  and  love  cannot  be  satisfied  with  sensa- 


144  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

tion.  They  who  are  at  ease,  who  repose  in  their 
possessions  and  feel  not  the  need  of  ceaseless 
striving  to  rise  to  higher  things  are  miserable, 
for  they  have  lost  consciousness  of  God's  pres- 
ence in  the  soul. 

The  finite  and  the  infinite,  the  temporal  and 
the  eternal,  are  inconceivably  diverse,  and  yet 
they  are  so  bound  together  that  they  constitute 
a  unity  of  the  One  and  the  many,  of  God  and 
man. 

To  the  undeceived  and  confident  mind  of  the 
youthful  student,  if  his  beliefs  and  opinions  are 
shattered,  nothing  seems  longer  true  or  worth 
while;  but  when  experience  and  meditation 
shall  have  given  him  insight,  he  will  know  that 
though  whole  worlds  of  beliefs  and  opinions  fail, 
the  essential  good  of  life  remains  for  those  who 
hold  to  its  sacred  worth  and  divine  origin  and 
end. 

Nearly  everything  desirable  any  one  may 
attain,  if  he  despise  not  the  means. 

Be  not  over-confident.  A  word  hastily  spoken, 
a  deed  thoughtlessly  done,  a  whim  lightly  in- 
dulged may  bring  disaster.  The  wise  are 
watchful. 

A  high  aim,  a  worthy  purpose  followed  faith- 
fully to  the  end,  is  success,  distinction,  and  bless- 
edness, whatever  one's  worldly  fortune. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  145 

In  society  one  should  learn  behavior,  sym- 
pathy, forbearance,  modesty,  tolerance,  discre- 
tion; in  solitude  he  should  acquire  insight, 
depth,  wisdom,  inwardness,  independence,  free- 
dom, and  peace.  In  society  he  should  converse 
with  men  joyfully,  bravely,  uprightly;  in  soli- 
tude he  should  live  with  God  in  humility  and 
all  sincerity.  Our  fellows  are  prodigals  who 
quickly  take  their  leave  for  some  far  distant 
land.  We  see  them  but  a  while,  and  even  then 
their  thoughts  wander  from  us.  God  abides 
and  is  still  with  us  though  we  flee  Him;  nor 
can  death  hide  us  from  His  face.  In  solitude  we 
may  make  ourselves  conscious  of  His  presence 
and  learn  to  know  the  blessedness  there  is  in 
loving  Him. 

They  alone  know  the  truth  who,  heedless  of 
the  contradictions  and  disputes  with  which  the 
world  is  rilled,  hearken  to  the  inner  voice,  intent 
solely  on  doing  and  loving  what  is  eternally 
right  and  good. 

To  those  who  resent  hearing  truth  it  will 
cease  to  be  spoken. 

If  thy  friend  quarrel  with  thee,  he  thinks  he 
has  good  cause  though  it  be  only  that  he  is 
weary  of  thy  company. 

A  mere  nothing  will  often  change  the  whole 
course  of  life.  Consent  heedlessly  given  to  what 

10 


146  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

seems  unimportant  may  engage  us  in  ways  in 
which  we  can  neither  stay  with  honor  nor  quit 
without  disgrace. 

Since,  when  there  is  question  of  the  best, 
nor  number  nor  quantity  is  to  be  reckoned,  be 
content  with  loving  truth  and  doing  good, 
however  few  there  be  for  whom  thou  art  a 
benefactor. 

Pretenders  need  recognition.  The  wholly 
true  lean  on  God  and  are  self-sufficient. 

What  is  excellent  is  so,  though  millions  of 
eyes,  blinded  by  ignorance  or  envy  or  prejudice, 
should  fail  to  perceive  its  worth. 

To  know  and  to  will  —  that  is  the  key  which 
opens  the  door  to  every  kind  of  success. 

So  long  as  we  can  feel  that  vital  power  flows 
from  us,  to  illumine,  strengthen,  exalt,  and  lead 
Godward  even  one  or  two,  so  long  are  we  cer- 
tain that  it  is  a  blessed  thing  to  be  alive. 

Equality  is  desirable  only  when  men  are  equal 
in  what  is  good,  or  rather  in  the  best  things, 
since  no  one  can  believe  it  well  that  they  should 
be  uniformly  ignorant  or  vicious. 

If  thou  art  wise  thou  dost  not  desire  that 
any  one  should  imagine  thy  words  or  deeds  have 
worth  they  do  not  possess.  It  can  do  neither 
thee  nor  another  good  that  thou  shouldst  be 
esteemed  for  what  thou  art  not,  and  it  is  certain 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  147 

that  if  thy  friends  knew  thee  as  thou  knowest 
thyself,  they  would  love  thee  less  or  not  at  all. 

There  is  no  higher  wisdom  than  to  strive 
with  all  one's  strength  for  the  best,  indifferent 
as  to  the  result,  since  the  striving  is  success 
and  blessedness. 

Not  reason  but  a  common  consent  is  the 
source  of  nearly  all  our  opinions,  and  were  it  not 
for  our  prejudices  life  would  lose  half  its  charm. 
Could  the  youth  see  things  in  the  light  in  which 
they  shall  be  revealed  to  him  when  he  is  old,  all 
his  deep  yearning  and  passionate  desire  would 
fail.  Whatever  draws  us  irresistibly  —  our  re- 
ligion, our  country,  our  friends,  the  hope  of  dis- 
tinction —  creates  about  us  an  atmosphere  in 
which  it  is  not  possible  to  see  clear.  "  The 
comfortable  opinion  men  have  of  themselves," 
says  Halifax,  "  keepeth  up  human  society  which 
would  be  more  than  half  destroyed  without  it." 

To  understand  that  wisdom  consists  in  mind- 
ing small  things  one  need  but  consider  that  it  is 
possible  to  live  only  from  minute  to  minute. 

They  who  are  not  able  to  trust  their  own 
judgment  cannot  be  true  leaders  nor  inspirers 
of  noble  action. 

Human  life  is  essentially  a  life  of  thought  and 
love,  of  hope  and  joy,  of  faith  and  imagination ; 
and  the  best  that  the  most  powerful  and  the 


148  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

richest  can  do  is  to  foster  and  increase  this  life 
in  themselves  and  in  others.  It  is  the  curse  of 
the  sensualist  that  he  can  neither  rightly  think 
nor  love,  neither  have  high  faith  nor  divine 
imaginings.  His  mind  is  steeped  in  matter ;  his 
soul  in  filth.  He  may  appear  to  be  enviable,  but 
he  is  self-condemned  and  outside  the  pale  of  true 
human  life. 

If  happiness  be  the  ideal,  they  who  have  un- 
selfish purposes  and  moderate  means  have 
greatest  reason  to  think  it  may  be  within  their 
reach. 

To  have  a  purpose  high  or  low  is  the  indis- 
pensable condition  of  success.  There  would 
seem  to  be  more  hope  of  him  whose  object  is 
evil,  than  of  one  who  has  no  fixed  aim  at  all. 

He  who  aims  high,  says  Emerson,  must  dread 
an  easy  home  and  a  popular  manner. 

Genius  emerges  from  the  midst  of  a  me- 
chanical and  commercial  environment  with  the 
greatest  difficulty;  but  if  by  some  happy  acci- 
dent one  arrive  at  the  power  of  perfect  expres- 
sion from  out  such  circumstance,  we  find  him 
endowed  with  the  truest  insight. 

A  man  of  genius  may  be  the  most  practical  of 
men,  but  he  will  love  a  painting,  a  poem,  a 
phrase  he  has  made  more  than  any  deeds  he  may 
have  done.  When  Caesar  wrote,  "  Veni,  vidi, 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  149 

vici,"  he  had  a  higher  and  more  exquisite  de- 
light than  when  he  looked  on  the  rout  of  his 
foes. 

The  naive  pleasure  the  Greek  poets  took  in 
individuals  and  situations  the  man  of  genius 
must  now  be  able  to  find  in  pure  truth.  The 
idyls  of  Theocritus  are  charming,  but  they  touch 
only  the  things  which  attract  the  finer  sort  of 
boys  and  girls. 

The  art  of  writing  and  the  art  of  speaking  are 
much  the  same,  and  when  all  is  said,  they  are 
but  the  art  of  pleasing. 

The  proper  recreation  for  one  whose  vocation 
throws  him  into  practical  affairs  is  the  study  of 
philosophy  and  letters.  If  he  acquire  a  taste  for 
this  it  will  not  only  give  him  the  purest  pleasure, 
but  it  will  also  enable  him  to  fulfil  his  routine 
duties  with  greater  ease  and  despatch. 

An  assumption,  as  unfounded  as  it  is  common, 
is  that  education  is  for  the  young  only.  We 
shall  make  no  real  progress  so  long  as  we  fail 
to  understand  that  each  one's  first  and  chief 
business,  whether  he  is  young  or  old,  is  to 
educate  himself.  It  is  only  through  the  ceaseless 
effort  to  improve  that  we  can  rightly  serve  God 
or  man,  and  service  is  the  universal  law  of  true 
human  life,  the  sole  fountain  of  joy. 

The  unintelligence  of  man  is  more  dishearten- 


150  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

ing  than  his  perversity.  The  wicked  may  be 
converted,  but  the  senseless  are  beyond  the 
reach  of  the  best  skill  and  devotion,  —  all  the 
more  incurable  because  they  are  unable  to  per- 
ceive their  need  of  healing. 

Of  all  the  pleasures  man  may  enjoy  on  earth, 
says  Petrarch,  the  cultivation  of  letters  is  the 
noblest,  the  most  lasting,  the  most  delightful,  and 
•the  most  constant.  It  is  the  easiest  to  devote 
one's  self  to  and  the  least  troublesome  to  procure. 

Habituation  is  everything.  Unfortunately  to 
what  lowers  and  enslaves  we  accustom  ourselves 
readily;  to  what  ennobles  and  liberates,  with 
difficulty  or  not  at  all. 

The  infinite  right  is  plain,  but  we  are  drawn 
to  the  boundless  wrong.  The  fundamental 
question  is  whether  we  shall  choose  the  right 
without  a  thought  of  consequences,  or  prefer 
what  is  pleasant  or  profitable.  Here  we  have 
the  line  which  separates  the  children  of  light 
from  the  children  of  darkness.  The  mystery  is 
that  it  all  should  seem  to  be  so  largely  a  thing  of 
circumstance,  of  heredity,  of  moods  and  tem- 
perament. But  however  men  may  differ  in  their 
attempts  to  explain  the  difficulty,  the  final  and 
supreme  test  is  conduct,  not  intellectual  skill. 
Righteousness  is  life,  and  the  wages  of  sin  is 
death. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  151 

That  a  self-conscious  being  should  spring 
from  a  universe  in  which  at  the  beginning 
there  was  no  self-conscious  being  is  inconceiv- 
able and  incredible.  If  this  were  possible  the 
law  of  causation  would  lose  its  meaning ;  reason 
its  validity.  Since  the  eternally  self-conscious 
One  is  the  origin  of  all,  He  is  the  end  of  all, 
and  matter  and  mind  have  worth  in  the  degree 
in  which  they  serve  His  purpose  and  lead  to 
Him. 

A  commonplace  is  a  truth  which  puts  us  to 
shame,  and  which,  therefore,  we  abhor.  The 
critics,  knowing  this,  treat  with  finest  scorn  the 
moralists  and  the  preachers. 

The  greatest  and  most  sacred  words  have  for 
each  one  the  meaning  and  content  with  which 
they  were  filled  for  him  in  childhood  and  at 
home. 

A  man  loves  to  talk  of  himself;  a  woman 
of  others.  He  is  more  egotistic;  she  more 
curious. 

In  the  gospels  the  enemies  of  Christ  are  al- 
ways men,  while  the  women  with  whom  He  is 
brought  into  contact  are  faithful  and  devoted. 

Truth  is  like  light,  which  is  white  but  breaks 
into  various  colors.  It  is  these  colors  with  their 
infinite  shadings  we  see,  and  therefore  we  neither 
see  nor  think  alike. 


152  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Wouldst  thou  live  long,  have  the  will  to  live, 
exercising  thyself  in  unwearying  and  disinter- 
ested striving  for  truth,  righteousness,  and  love ; 
for  shouldst  thou  live  an  hundred  years,  oc- 
cupying thyself  with  lower  things,  thy  life  will 
not  have  been  a  human  life. 

Wouldst  thou  be  worthy,  let  not  thy  mind 
live  where  thy  body  lives  —  in  the  trough  of 
appetite  and  desire. 

Let  old  things  which  are  true  abide,  and  if 
the  new  are  better,  let  them  prevail. 

To  whomsoever  the  holy  dead  are  of  no  con- 
sequence, says  Richter,  to  him  the  living  are  of 
none. 

All  are  sophists  when  they  plead  for  them- 
selves or  what  they  identify  with  themselves, 
—  their  vanities  and  prejudices,  their  passions 
and  interests. 

The  weak  and  unhappy  are  superstitious,  and 
superstition  is  therefore  imperishable. 

Were  the  lives  of  those  we  deem  most  for- 
tunate completely  revealed  to  us,  we  should 
oftener  pity  than  envy.  It  is  ignorance  that 
makes  us  harsh  and  bitter  toward  one  another. 

He  is  wise  who  knows  how  to  live  with  all 
kinds  of  men  in  every  variety  of  circumstance 
and  condition  without  giving  or  receiving 
annoyance. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  153 

The  contemptuous  have  neither  religion  nor 
philosophy ;  for  religion  is  reverent  and  humble, 
and  philosophy  teaches  us  to  think  modestly  of 
ourselves  and  kindly  of  others. 

Were  life  but  chance  or  fate,  prudence  were 
folly. 

Reasons  for  study  are  plentiful,  but  they  who 
give  them  are  not  teachers  unless  they  have  the 
secret  of  appealing  to  the  imagination  and  of 
awakening  a  passionate,  persistent  longing  for 
exercise  of  mind.  We  do  not  what  we  under- 
stand to  be  right  or  useful,  but  what  interest, 
curiosity,  and  desire  impel  us  to  do. 

The  school  should  be  a  place  where  the  young 
are  brought  into  vital  sympathetic  relationship 
with  the  wisest,  greatest,  and  most  delightful 
men  and  women,  and  this  acquaintance  is  best 
brought  about  by  the  personal  influence  of 
teachers  working  through  literature. 

The  rightly  educated  are  alone  ladies  and 
gentlemen.  They  alone  keep  the  best  company 
and  are  at  home  with  the  noble  living  and  the 
noble  dead. 

A  chief  purpose  in  sending  children  to  school 
is  to  have  them  taught  the  right  use  of  leisure; 
for  on  the  use  we  make  of  the  time  in  which 
we  have  nothing  to  do  depends  our  real  success 
or  failure.  By  our  labors  we  gain  a  livelihood 


154  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

and  acquire  a  certain  professional  or  mechanical 
skill,  but  if  we  are  to  make  the  mind  luminous, 
the  heart  generous,  the  imagination  noble,  the 
work  must  be  done  in  our  moments  of  leisure. 
So  long  as  the  school  is  considered  mainly  a 
useful  institution  it  will  not  only  fail  to  edu- 
cate, but  it  will  fail  to  prepare  its  pupils  to  per- 
form in  a  cheerful  and  worthy  spirit  the  tasks 
by  which  they  gain  the  means  of  living.  Un- 
less they  learn  to  look  on  leisure  as  the  most 
precious  reward  of  labor,  they  will  acquire 
neither  knowledge  nor  virtue. 

Be  grateful,  if  not  for  the  sake  of  thy  bene- 
factors, for  thy  own. 

No  one  can  have  all  the  world  for  his 
friends,  but  he  whose  life  is  a  masquerade  will 
easily  have  the  contempt  and  scorn  of  all  the 
world. 

Detraction  and  calumny,  envy  and  hate,  help 
to  maintain  the  general  moral  equilibrium,  but 
they  who  are  guilty  of  these  vices  are  miserable. 

They  who  want  the  sense  of  humor  must 
necessarily  often  be  ridiculous.  It  is  as  though 
one  lacked  an  eye  or  an  ear. 

To  the  athletes  of  our  colleges  and  universi- 
ties we  may  apply  what  Diogenes  said  of  a 
young  man  who  danced  exceedingly  well  — 
"  The  better,  the  worse." 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  155 

.  The  mind  of  man,  says  Bacon,  is  cheered  and 
refreshed  more  by  profiting  in  small  things  than 
by  standing  at  a  stay  in  great. 

Our  attitude  toward  all  things  is  determined 
by  the  point  of  view  from  which  we  regard 
them,  as  our  opinion  of  a  work  of  art  is  influ- 
enced by  the  setting  and  light  in  which  it  is 
placed. 

Whoever  appeals  to  men  gains  the  noblest 
victory  when  he  compels  them  to  think. 

If  thou  canst  not  be  a  great  thinker,  thou 
canst  at  least  acquaint  thyself  with  great 
thoughts. 

Poetry  is  to  the  mind  what  spring  showers 
are  to  growing  corn,  and  he  who  has  not  steeped 
himself  in  poetic  literature  must  be  formal,  hard, 
and  narrow.  Hence  the  study  of  the  great  poets 
has  been  and  will  be  the  highest  inspiration  to 
the  self-activity  from  which  alone  intellectual 
and  moral  culture  can  ripen. 

Love  solitude  while  thou  art  young,  for  the 
old  finding  themselves  in  the  midst  of  a  waste 
which  the  years  have  made,  are  driven  to  seek 
refuge  in  company. 

Wealth  oppresses  and  saddens.  We  have  not 
the  courage  to  get  rid  of  it,  and  we  feel  that  we 
are  hoarding  it  for  those  who  care  little  for  us, 
and  on  whom  it  will  confer  no  real  benefit. 


156  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

We  do  not  envy  others  the  possession  of  the 
good  for  which  we  do  not  care.  The  many  are 
filled  with  envious  thoughts  when  they  behold 
the  few  who  live  in  splendor  and  luxury,  in  idle- 
ness and  dissipation,  but  they  are  content  to 
leave  the  scholar  to  his  books,  the  philosopher 
to  his  contemplations,  the  poet  to  his  dreams, 
and  the  saint  to  God.  None,  it  may  be,  but 
scholars,  philosophers,  poets,  and  saints  know 
that  the  rich  who  live  for  what  money  can  buy 
are  of  all  men  the  least  to  be  envied.  As  we 
must  ascend  to  get  a  view  of  the  plain,  we  must 
rise  into  the  higher  self  to  understand  how  little 
wealth  can  do  to  exalt  the  mind  or  ennoble  the 
heart. 

To  an  ape  the  most  attractive  thing  in  nature 
is  an  ape. 

No  one  believes  that  he  shall  die,  for  hope, 
which  never  abandons  us,  whispers  —  not  yet. 
Our  life  is  a  thing  of  time,  and  in  imagination 
we  still  lengthen  the  portion  allotted  us.  Not 
to-day  nor  to-morrow  nor  the  day  after  shall  it 
end;  not  this  year  nor  the  following:  and  as 
age  comes  on  apace  we  console  ourselves  with 
thinking  of  those  who  have  passed  the  nine- 
tieth or  the  hundredth  milestone,  still  vigorous 
and  alert.  Yet,  though  we  thus  cling  to  time 
and  long  for  its  continuance,  if  we  are  miser- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  157 

able  we  find  that  it  drags,  and  if  we  are  happy 
we  give  no  heed  to  its  passage. 

They  who  lose  health  or  wealth  or  friends 
move  us  to  pity,  but  we  are  insensible  in  the 
presence  of  the  ignorance  and  misery  of  mul- 
titudes. What  they  have  never  had  we  easily 
persuade  ourselves  they  have  no  right  to 
possess. 

Learning  does  not  make  us  wise  or  virtuous. 
The  most  it  can  do  is  to  give  us  a  sense  of 
security,  and  the  feeling  that  we  are  on  a  level 
with  the  best. 

Vices  are  more  harmful  than  crimes;  but  we 
punish  crime  and  foster  the  vices  by  which  it 
is  bred. 

The  inextinguishable  love  of  life  is  revealed 
not  less  in  the  sadness  which  softens  the  pleas- 
ures of  memory  than  in  the  joy  which  hope 
inspires. 

The  purest  fountain  of  life  flows  within  the 
souls  of  those  who  are  self-active  in  a  noble 
way,  and  when  the  eye  has  grown  dim  and  the 
mind  has  lost  its  fire  there  is  still  a  serene  joy 
in  remembering  what  we  have  wrought  in  a 
right  spirit. 

There  is  no  blessedness  on  earth  save  in  hop- 
ing, believing,  and  striving.  Nor  knowledge, 
nor  possessions,  nor  honors,  nor  pleasures  can 


158  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

lift  the  cloud  or  lighten  the  burden  for  those 
who,  losing  heart,  cease  to  make  effort  to  grow 
in  intellectual  and  moral  power. 

Hope  is  the  fountain-head  of  faith;  faith,  of 
love. 

They  who  seek  gratification  in  what  only  a 
depraved  mind  and  a  degraded  body  can  offer 
are  like  the  beasts  that  batten  on  carrion. 

The  breath  is  poisonous;  the  exudations  and 
other  excrementitious  matter,  the  elimination  of 
which  is  ceaseless  and  indispensable  to  health, 
are  poisonous.  The  body  is  the  breeding-ground 
and  burial-ground  of  myriads  of  microbes.  The 
vital  organs  are  closely  wrapped  and  concealed, 
and  when  they  are  uncovered  we  turn  away  in 
horror.  Yet  so  incapable  are  we  of  seeing 
things  as  they  are  that  men  have  always  con- 
sidered the  human  body  the  most  beautiful  of 
objects,  and  Nature's  masterpiece.  They  have 
been  content  to  be  its  slaves,  and  the  more  com- 
pletely they  have  been  able  to  gratify  its  whims 
and  to  minister  to  its  appetites,  the  more  for- 
tunate and  civilized  they  have  held  themselves 
to  be. 

The  purest  souls  are  the  most  capable  of 
love. 

He  who  throws  the  whole  stress  of  his  think- 
ing, loving,  and  doing  on  the  power  and  truth 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  159 

and  goodness  of  God,  walks  secure,  certain  that 
not  death  itself  can  harm  him.  He  rests  on  an 
everlasting  foundation,  and  shall  not  fear  though 
worlds  be  shattered.  But  atheism  destroys  mag- 
nanimity, as  Bacon  says,  and  deprives  human 
nature  of  the  power  to  exalt  itself  above  human 
frailty. 

Light  can  blind  not  less  than  darkness,  and 
the  inrush  of  all  our  new  knowledge  has  clouded 
the  inner  view  of  innumerable  minds. 

The  best  books  are  those  which  give  us  the 
clearest  insight  into  our  own  minds  and  into 
the  heart  of  Nature,  enabling  us  to  see  God  in 
both. 

Truths  we  habitually  meditate  become  part 
of  our  spiritual  being,  as  the  food  we  take  be- 
comes the  bone  and  fibre  of  our  bodies. 

The  best  God  does  for  us  is  to  give  us  a 
nature  profoundly  religious.  They  who  dwell 
in  the  most  perfect  security  are  not  the  philoso- 
phers, but  the  devout  believers.  So  long  as  we 
are  concerned  for  anything  more  than  for  the 
love  of  our  Father  in  heaven,  we  are  easily 
troubled  and  made  unhappy. 

The  best  is  within  the  reach  of  all  who  have 
the  courage  and  the  industry  to  make  them- 
selves capable  of  knowing  and  loving  it.  It  is 
as  accessible  to  peasants  as  to  kings,  to  simple- 


I6O  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

minded  maids  as  to  great  scholars.  Riches  can- 
not give  it  nor  poverty  take  it  away. 

All  laudation  partakes  of  self-laudation.  We 
extol  our  country,  our  religion,  our  party,  our 
friends;  whatever,  in  a  word,  we  identify 
with  ourselves.  Our  censure  too  is  provoked 
not  so  much  by  faults  and  vices  as  by  the  cir- 
cumstance that  those  to  whom  we  attribute 
them  are  persons  with  whom  we  have  no 
sympathy. 

Even  to  have  seen  a  man  genuinely  great  is 
a  privilege  for  which  a  well-born  soul  remains 
forever  grateful.  Above  all  price,  then,  is  the 
intimate  acquaintance  with  the  wisest  and  the 
best  which  we  may  make  in  the  books  wherein 
they  have  built  for  their  spirits  everlasting 
dwelling  places. 

The  shallow  put  their  trust  in  the  improve- 
ment of  the  environment.  They  who  think  un- 
derstand that  it  profits  not  to  gain  the  world, 
if  the  soul  be  not  made  luminous,  loving,  and 
pure. 

The  true  benefactors  are  those  who  minister 
to  the  mind;  for  man  is  essentially  spirit,  and 
but  incidentally  matter. 

It  is  doubtful  whether  any  one  thinks  worse 
of  a  sensible  man  than  he  thinks  of  himself. 
The  wise,  therefore,  are  not  disturbed  when 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  l6l 

they  are  held  in  slight  esteem  or  treated  as  of 
no  importance. 

Thou  mayest  seek  thyself  in  all  things  if  thou 
but  understandest  that  thou  canst  find  thyself  in 
God  alone,  from  whom,  if  thou  go  astray,  thou 
forsakest  the  source  of  life  and  joy.  The  in- 
finite mystery,  O  Father  in  heaven,  is  that  we 
should  be  Thy  children  and  yet  be  blind  and 
without  love. 

A  generous  spirit  is  humiliated  when  he  dis- 
appoints, for  to  disappoint  is  to  give  pain.  He 
feels  that  whatsoever  he  attempt,  his  fellows 
have  the  right  to  the  best  he  can  do;  and 
consequently  that  it  is  his  duty  ceaselessly  to 
upbuild  his  being,  since  what  he  is  is  the  meas- 
ure of  what  he  can  hope  to  perform.  Nothing 
is  more  pitiful  than  the  condition  of  one  who, 
having  given  great  promise  and  awakened  high 
expectations  in  his  youth,  sinks  into  intellectual 
and  moral  somnolency  and  impotence,  becom- 
ing the  semblance  of  one  who  might  have  been 
a  real  man. 

It  is  as  difficult  as  it  is  undesirable  to  isolate 
one's  self.  We  cannot  carry  with  us  in  our 
travels  our  material  and  social  environment; 
but  the  spiritual  atmosphere,  the  intellectual 
and  moral  climate  to  which  we  have  accus- 
tomed ourselves,  accompanies  us  to  all  places, 
ii 


1 62  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

and  when  we  have  made  the  world  of  thought 
and  love  our  home,  we  are  at  home  everywhere. 

It  is  well  to  seek  strength  and  light  from  the 
heroes,  sages,  and  saints  of  the  past,  but  most 
fortunate  are  they  who  are  able  to  drink  from 
the  fountain  of  wisdom  and  holiness  as  it  breaks 
forth  and  flows  here  and  now. 

All  that  diverts,  unless  it  be  a  renewal  and 
replenishment  of  the  inner  source  of  life,  is  dis- 
sipation and  enfeeblement. 

When  we  strive  earnestly  to  upbuild  our  being 
that  we  may  the  better  serve  God  and  man,  new 
access  to  health  and  strength  and  joy  is  opened 
to  us  day  by  day. 

As  we  turn  instinctively  from  all  that  dis- 
gusts or  nauseates,  so  let  it  be  our  life-purpose 
to  acquire  and  strengthen  the  habit  of  aversion 
from  whatever  may  darken  the  mind,  weaken 
the  will,  soil  the  imagination,  or  corrupt  the 
heart.  It  is  a  less  evil  to  live  in  the  midst  of 
physical  filth  than  with  low  thoughts  and  de- 
grading passions.. 

As  one  who  sits  in  his  pleasant  room  sur- 
rounded by  what  he  most  cherishes  —  books 
and  the  company  of  those  he  loves  —  feels  a 
deeper  sense  of  contentment  and  peace  when  the 
storm  rages  and  the  rain  beats  on  the  window- 
panes,  so  he  whose  home  is  within  is  not  dis- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  163 

turbed  by  the  strife  and  turmoil  which  fill  the 
world,  but  gains  in  the  midst  of  the  noise  and 
conflict  a  more  living  consciousness  of  the 
blessedness  of  his  lot. 

Property  is  the  most  proper  of  things;  and 
they  who  have  it  in  abundance  make  the  rules 
of  propriety,  while  those  who  have  nothing  ap- 
pear to  be  ridiculous. 

Passion  is  all-persuasive.  It  subdues  to  its 
own  heat  and  color  whatever  it  touches.  Reason 
fades  from  its  consuming  fire  as  stars  before  the 
upglowing  sun.  It  inweaves  itself  with  Nature's 
laws  and  silences  the  voice  of  conscience.  It  is 
the  subtlest  of  sophists,  and  never  lacks  for  ar- 
gument or  pretext.  It  evolves  into  a  philosophy 
which  holds  self-indulgence  or  interest  or  power 
to  be  man's  chief  good.  It  proclaims  itself  the 
impulse  of  God,  stirring  within  the  inmost  depths 
of  man's  being.  It  becomes  a  religion,  and 
makes  its  own  gratification  the  aim  and  end  of 
life.  It  is  mightiest  in  the  mighty. 

To  lead  a  human  life  is  to  believe,  to  hope, 
to  think,  to  admire,  to  love,  and  to  act  in  obedi- 
ence to  these  inner  powers ;  and  so  long  as  this 
is  one's  life,  he  need  not  consider  whether  he  is 
young  or  old,  rich  or  poor,  famous  or  unknown. 

Our  democratic  prepossessions  incline  us  to 
believe  that  the  people  know  and  love  the  best. 


164  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

It  is  not  so.  The  heavenly  kingdom  is  open  to 
all,  but  only  the  few  enter  therein.  For  the 
most,  earth  is  but  a  feeding  and  a  breeding 
ground. 

If  an  animal  is  beautiful  it  pleases  and  satis- 
fies; but  the  fairest  human  body,  uninformed 
and  unillumined  by  a  wise,  loving,  and  brave 
spirit,  appears  to  be  a  vulgar  and  unnatural 
thing. 

Intellectual  and  moral  not  less  than  physical 
strength  is  odious  when  it  is  used  against  us; 
and  they  who  have  power  must  be  beneficent  if 
they  would  escape  being  hated. 

The  irresistible  power  of  words  is  not  given 
to  those  who  hear  and  read  and  do  much, 
but  to  those  who  dwell  within  and  love  to  be 
alone.  When  Tauler  found  that  his  preaching 
was  greatly  admired,  but  ineffectual,  he  with- 
drew into  solitude,  that  he  might  bathe  in  the 
primal  source  of  persuasiveness  and  reissue  a 
creative  soul. 


VI. 


THE  pleasures  of  which  the  senses  are  the 
purveyors  are  common  and  cheap.  They 
may  be  had  by  all,  and  the  satisfaction  they  give 
is  transitory  and  superficial.  The  little  com- 
pany of  the  noblest  alone  understand  the  divine 
joys  which  spring  from  knowing  and  loving  the 
best  that  may  be  known  and  loved. 

As  a  lover,  despite  business  and  distance  and 
obstacles  of  whatever  kind,  still  lives  in  spirit 
with  the  beloved,  so  a  free  and  self-active  mind, 
whatever  difficulties  and  distractions  may  arise, 
is  ever  accompanied  by  great  thoughts. 

In  a  company  of  men  some  one  said :  I  may 
tell  this  story  since  there  are  no  ladies  present. 
No,  replied  Grant,  but  there  are  gentlemen  here. 

It  is  amazing  how  naturally  we  respond  to 
noble  sentiments,  and  how  easily  we  yield  to 
base  impulses. 

If  thou  wouldst  be  wise  and  helpful,  if  thou 
wouldst  have  peace  and  joy,  cherish  above  all 
things  simplicity  and  purity. 


1 66  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

To  be  able  to  abstract  is,  in  matters  of  specu- 
lation, the  source  of  original  power;  in  practi- 
cal affairs  the  wellspring  of  wisdom  is  to  be 
able  to  generalize.  Our  blunders  and  mistakes 
arise  from  our  unwillingness  to  recognize  that 
we  are  under  the  reign  of  law,  from  our  desire 
to  believe  that  our  case  is  exceptional.  Yes,  we 
say,  we  know  that  this  generally  happens,  but 
it  will  not  happen  to  us.  This  is  the  speech  of 
the  victims  of  passion  and  folly.  They  who 
play  with  fire  get  burned;  but  we  can  do  it 
and  escape  harm.  They  who  love  the  danger 
perish  in  it;  but  this  does  not  apply  to  us. 
They  who  despise  small  things,  little  by  little 
are  brought  to  ruin;  but  we  need  not  be  so 
particular.  We  make  exceptions  of  ourselves, 
and  the  ceaseless,  slow-acting  laws  grind  us  to 
dust. 

What  is  the  body,  with  its  cellular  structure, 
but  the  result  of  countless  acts,  not  in  itself 
alone,  but  in  the  whole  series  of  beings  from 
which,  through  incalculable  lapses  of  time,  it 
has  descended,  —  acts  repeated  until  they  have 
become  habits?  Its  nature  is  its  habits.  This 
applies  to  the  mind  as  well,  working  in  and 
through  the  body.  It,  too,  is  a  synthesis  of 
habits,  inherited  and  acquired;  and  its  educa- 
tion is  carried  on  by  processes  of  repetition 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  l6? 

whereby  its  endowments,  which  themselves  are 
the  outcome  of  habits,  are  developed  into  habits 
of  thinking,  willing,  and  doing.  Education, 
then,  is  the  employment  by  man  of  Nature's 
methods  for  upbuilding  and  perfecting  all  that 
lives. 

The  more  progress  we  make  the  greater  the 
ease  and  rapidity  with  which  we  are  able  still 
to  advance. 

From  Nature  we  receive  little  more  than  the 
possibility  of  making  men  of  ourselves.  The 
rest  depends  on  the  things  we  accustom  our- 
selves to  think,  love,  and  do. 

There  are  instances  of  persons  born  without 
arms,  who  have  learned  to  write,  to  paint,  and 
to  perform  other  operations  with  the  feet  which 
we  commonly  suppose  the  hands  alone  make 
feasible.  What  imparts  this  skill?  Use,  habit, 
the  innumerable  efforts  and  repetitions  to  which 
their  helpless  condition  has  driven  these  unfor- 
tunate beings,  who  thus  furnish  us  new  evi- 
dence of  the  almost  incredible  things  which  are 
possible  to  those  who  have  untiring  industry 
and  patience.  What  use  will  do  for  hand  or 
foot,  it  will  perform  in  a  far  greater  degree 
for  the  brain,  which  is  an  immeasurably  finer 
instrument. 

Faculty  is  facility,  and  facility  is  the  out- 


168  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

come  of  infinite  repetitions,  resulting  in  an  ac- 
quired nature  which  makes  the  thing  as  easy 
to  do  as  it  is  easy  for  the  eye  to  see. 

We  are  largely  what  heredity  and  environ- 
ment have  made  us.  If  we  have  lived  among 
the  coarse  and  ignorant,  we  are  coarse  and  igno- 
rant. As  we  learn  the  language  of  our  com- 
panions, we  acquire  their  habits.  They  who 
buy  and  sell  grow  like  the  things  they  trade  in. 
It  is  difficult  to  meet  with  the  wise  and  great- 
hearted, and  it  is  more  difficult  to  rise  to  planes 
where  companionship  with  them  becomes  pos- 
sible. They  cannot  interest  the  indifferent  and 
unintelligent.  The  vital  books  may  be  had  by 
any  one,  but  not  the  ability  to  understand  and 
love  them. 

The  creators  of  literature  are  men  in  whom 
life's  current  is  deep  and  strong,  and  who,  had 
their  energies  been  directed  to  other  forms  of 
activity,  would  have  wrought  with  the  same 
superior  power  with  which  they  wrote. 

There  lie  as  many  miseries  beyond  riches, 
says  Izaak  Walton,  as  on  this  side  them. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  perceive  whether  the 
author  has  sailed  round  the  whole  world  of 
intelligible  things,  visited  all  the  continents  and 
islands,  and  sounded  all  the  depths  the  mind  of 
man  may  fathom,  and  if  we  find  in  him  this 


f 


GLIMPSES  'OF  TRUTH.  169 

comprehensiveness  of  view,  this  penetration  of 
thought,  we  read  him  gladly,  even  though  we 
be  unable  to  assent  to  much  he  says;  for  he 
cannot  fail  to  suggest  truths  and  reveal  beauties, 
of  which  those  who  have  dipped  only  here  and 
there  into  the  oceans  of  things  that  may  be 
known,  are  incapable  of  forming  a  conception. 
It  is  not  necessary  that  he  have  plodded  through 
the  interminable  details  of  history  and  science; 
it  is  enough  that  he  be^  familiar  with  the  best, 
and  have  the  revealing  glance  which  illumines 
all  it  falls  upon. 

They  who  know  best  how  a  thing  ought  to 
be  done  —  how,  for  instance,  a  poem  or  a  dis- 
course should  be  composed  —  generally  fail  when 
they  attempt  to  execute  what  they  teach. 

One  who  is  able  to  live  in  memory  and  im- 
agination, in  all  the  ages  of  which  history 
makes  record,  who  has  seen  people  after  people, 
civilization  after  civilization,  rise  and  flourish, 
and  then  sink  to  decay  and  death,  is  not  dis- 
turbed by  the  €vils  which  prevail  around  him 
and  slowly  undermine  and  wear  away  the  fabric 
of  religion  and  society.  He  understands  that 
when  there  is  a  general  decline  and  weakening 
of  faith  and  will,  the  efforts  of  individuals  are 
powerless  to  arrest  the  descent  to  ruin  and  ex- 
tinction. He  is  not,  however,  discouraged;  for 


I/O  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.    : 

a  true  man  does  brave  work  in  the  midst  of 
whatever  conditions,  since  it  is  his  nature  to  be 
active  and  strong,  and  to  look  to  God  rather 
than  to  results. 

It  is  not  possible  to  love  the  company  of  the 
despondent,  the  faultfinding,  and  the  complain- 
ing, of  those  who,  condemning  themselves  to  a 
private  hell,  would  have  us  hear  them  discourse 
of  its  torments.  The  brave  and  the  wise  strive 
to  make  us  forget  their  sufferings  and  sor- 
rows, even  though  they  be  unable  to  conceal 
them. 

The  love  of  the  weak,  like  their  thought,  is 
feeble.  It  is  selfish  too.  They  have  little  to 
give  and  much  to  receive.  Hence  they  flatter 
and  cling  and  become  desperate,  that  they  may 
gain  ascendency  over  the  strong  and  generous, 
who  themselves  grow  weak  when  appeal  is 
made  to  their  nobler  nature. 

Great  souls  have  nor  time  nor  temptation  to 
dwell  on  their  sorrows  and  wrongs. 

The  higher  manifestations  of  the  human  spirit 
are  so  life-giving  that  the  wisest  have  ever  been 
willing  to  forget  the  faults  and  weaknesses  of 
those  through  whom  they  have  received  the 
divine  favors. 

To  be  shameless  in  sin  is  to  make  the  evil 
doubly  heinous;  for  it  outrages  not  the  indi- 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  171 

vidual  self  alone,  but  the  social  body  whence  he 
draws  three-fourths  of  his  life. 

By  four  things  is  the  world  sustained,  says  an 
Arab  proverb,  —  by  the  knowledge  of  the  wise, 
the  justice  of  the  great,  the  prayer  of  the  good, 
and  the  valor  of  the  brave. 

The  sadness  which  overcame  Gibbon  when  he 
had  put  the  final  touches  to  the  history  on  which 
he  had  labored  for  twenty  years  is  felt  by  who- 
ever completes  a  great  task.  It  is  the  end  of 
so  much  of  life  and  a  symbol  of  the  end  of  all 
things,  and  though  he  should  know  that  it  will 
bring  him  fame,  yet  is  he  certain  that  the  joy  he 
had  in  the  doing  can  never  be  his  again.  For 
others  his  work  may  be  a  source  of  delight,  but 
for  himself  it  is  evermore  a  thing  done  and  dead. 

In  the  world  of  men  what  is  true  is  so  inter- 
woven with  what  is  false  that  the  good  who 
come  to  the  power  of  discernment  hesitate  to 
attempt  to  unravel  the  tangle  lest  they  do  harm 
rather  than  good. 

There  is  joy  in  advancing,  but  to  remain 
stationary,  even  upon  an  eminence  to  which  the 
eyes  of  all  the  world  are  drawn,  is  wearisome. 

How  almost  impossible  it  is  to  believe  that 
one  whom  we  have  known  to  be  wise,  strong, 
and  good  should  be  guilty  of  weaknesses  or  sins 
to  which  we  ourselves  have  no  temptation! 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Language  gives  body  to  thought ;  style  clothes 
it  with  grace,  distinction,  elegance,  and  beauty, 
imparts  to  it  color,  vivacity,  and  movement. 

The  best  literature  is  the  work  of  mature 
minds.  The  writings  of  the  young  may  awaken 
admiration,  like  the  feats  of  the  young  athletes, 
but  they  teach  nothing. 

"  The  greatest  errors  are  committed/'  says 
Bacon,  "  and  the  most  judgment  is  shown  in 
the  choice  of  individuals."  The  prosperity  or 
the  decay  of  states  and  churches  depends  largely 
on  the  men  whom  they  intrust  with  power  and 
authority,  and  the  wisdom  of  those  who  govern 
is  most  manifest  in  the  kind  of  men  they  ap- 
point to  office.  He  is  a  great  man  who  knows 
men,  and  so  far  as  this  is  possible,  promotes  the 
most  capable  and  the  most  honest  to  positions 
of  influence  and  responsibility. 

The  foibles  and  vices  of  the  greatest  bear 
witness  to  the  incurable  weakness  of  man. 

The  infallible  mark  of  talent  is  accustomable- 
ness.  We  can  become  able  in  the  degree  in 
which  we  are  habituable.  They  who  cannot 
inure  themselves  to  self-activity  cannot  learn  to 
do  the  best  work.  None  would  be  unintelli- 
gent, and  for  none  would  life  be  uninteresting, 
were  it  possible  to  make  the  habit  of  attention 
and  reflection  universal.  We  believe,  think,  and 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  173 

do  what  we  have  grown  accustomed  to  believe, 
think,  and  do;  and  if  men  are  to  be  brought  to 
believe,  think,  and  do  right,  it  must  be  the  re- 
sult of  processes  of  habituation.  It  cannot  be 
accomplished  by  argument,  however  conclusive, 
nor  by  exhortation,  however  powerful. 

One  may  notice  a  fly  wearying  itself  for 
hours  in  trying  to  get  through  a  window-pane. 
The  thing  is  impossible  for  the  poor  insect,  but 
it  can  never  know  that  it  is  so.  Of  how  much 
human  aim  and  endeavor  is  not  this  a  symbol? 

Part  of  the  good  fortune  of  youth  is  its  im- 
pulse to  believe  in  disinterested  love,  in  heroic 
virtue,  in  all  generous  and  noble  sentiments; 
and  so  long  as  this  faith  abides  with  us,  years 
cannot  take  from  us  the  freshness  of  the  heart, 
which  is  the  very  breath  of  the  young,  their 
crowning  joy  and  glory. 

It  is  the  tendency  of  reason  to  discredit  and 
enfeeble  the  generous  emotions  which  spring 
from  the  heart,  the  conscience,  and  the  imagi- 
nation, and  hence  a  rationalistic  spirit  begets 
a  selfish  and  hard  temper. 

Great  men  are  emulous  of  the  great  in  what- 
ever age  or  country  they  may  have  lived;  the 
small  are  busy  with  efforts  to  surpass  their 
little  neighbors. 

Beautiful  is  whatever  gives  spiritual  delight, 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

and  nothing  that  ministers  to  sensual  appetite 
alone  is  beautiful. 

When  we  love,  the  very 'defects  of  those  we 
love  may  but  serve  to  endear  them  to  us,  as 
we  may  see  in  the  love  of  mothers  for  their 
children. 

Time  drags  more  slowly  when  we  watch  be- 
side sleepers.  The  fact  that  it  has  ceased  to 
exist  for  them  seems  to  lengthen  it  for  us. 

He  who  makes  the  great  orators  his  habitual 
study  will  become  eloquent;  he  who  lives  with 
the  great  poets  will  acquire  the  poetic  mind ;  he 
who  assiduously  meditates  the  sacred  scriptures 
will  become  religious  and  devout.  Little  by 
little  we  are  transformed  into  what  we  identify 
ourselves  with  by  long  and  serious  application. 

Brevity  is  pleasing  because  it  suggests  and 
implies  variety,  change  of  thought  or  scene  or 
occupation,  which  is  indispensable  to  our  con- 
tentment. There  is -nothing,  however  delight- 
ful, which  long  continuance  will  not  deprive  of 
its  charm.  Love  itself  cloys,  and  when  the 
happy  couple  have  gone  off  on  their  bridal 
tour  they  quickly  weary  of  each  other,  and 
would  welcome  the  advent  of  even  a  disagree- 
able acquaintance. 

If  we  have  no  enemies  we  begin  to  quarrel 
with  our  friends,  so  difficult  is  it  to  live  in 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  175 

peace.  To  the  truth  of  this  the  history  of  in- 
dividuals, families,  states,  and  churches  bears 
witness.  Emulation  and  envy  never  die  whether 
we  live  in  the  company  of  those  who  love  us  or 
are  surrounded  by  foes.  Enemies  are  teachers 
and  benefactors,  if  we  are  capable  of  improve- 
ment. They  make  us  vigilant;  they  keep  us 
alert;  they  increase  energy,  inculcate  prudence, 
inure  to  endurance,  strengthen  courage,  counsel 
prudence,  and  warn  against  pride  and  presump- 
tion. Since  life  is  a  struggle,  they  help  us  to 
live.  As  a  man's  friends  reveal  his  character, 
so  do  his  foes.  From  enemies  we  learn  patriot- 
ism, learn  the  worth  of  friends,  and  they  hurt 
us  only  when  they  overcome  us  by  rilling  us 
with  anger,  hatred,  and  revenge. 

What  we  have  grown  accustomed  to  seems 
good  enough,  and  they  who  fall  into  ways  and 
ruts  find  it  natural  to  walk  therein  to  the  end. 

The  vices  and  infamies  of  men  are  the  vices 
and  infamies  of  man,  and  they  degrade  us 
all. 

Cowards  are  cruel  because  fear  is  the  most 
selfish  and  therefore  the  most  heartless  of  pas- 
sions. It  makes  tyrants  and  monsters.  In  the 
fright  in  which  they  habitually  live  they  would 
protect  themselves  by  striking  all  the  world  with 
terror.  Whatever  fills  us  with  alarm  for  our 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

own  safety  is  apt  to  make  us  reckless  of  the 
dangers  and  sufferings  of  others.  In  the  midst 
of  pestilences,  in  the  rout  of  armies,  in  ship- 
wrecks, the  victims  of  panic  easily  lose  the 
sense  of  humanity.  No  small  part  of  the  de- 
pravity of  the  vicious  is  due  to  the  state  of 
dread  their  misdeeds  beget  in  them.  The 
frightened  are  demoralized :  the  man  dies  and 
the  beast  survives.  In  making  men  brave  we 
make  them  kind  and  helpful. 

He  whom  no  failure  can  dishearten,  whose 
belief  in  himself  no  criticism  can  shake,  whose 
industry  no  difficulties  can  slacken,  is  fore- 
doomed to  rise  above  the  crowd.  He  will  suc- 
ceed though  the  object  of  his  desire  be  nothing 
more  than  money  and  such  distinction  as  money 
confers.  But  if  the  aim  and  end  of  his  longing 
and  labor  be  to  upbuild  his  being,  he  shall  be- 
come great  in  himself,  exalted  above  the  level 
of  the  life  the  many  lead,  and  shall  shed,  like  a 
fixed  star,  light  and  joy  upon  thousands. 

In  life,  as  in  literature,  the  misfortunes  of  the 
brave  and  the  beautiful  are  commiserated,  while 
the  sufferings  and  the  sorrows  of  the  decrepit 
and  uncouth  are  passed  unheeded  by. 

The  sublimest  emotions  from  which  the  di- 
vinest  thoughts  spring  cannot  be  embodied  in 
fitting  words  while  we  are  under  the  spell. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  177 

What  they  teach  us  we  can  rightly  utter  only 
when  the  fervor  and  the  glow  have  died  away 
and  become  a  memory.  Even  so  all  holiest  and 
highest  things  are  first  truly  understood  and 
appreciated  after  they  have  passed  away. 

Joy  expands  and  exalts  the  imagination; 
sorrow  deepens  and  purifies  the  heart. 

Can  there  be  anything  more  tragical  than 
that  one  who  has  divine  gifts  should  suffer 
himself  to  be  condemned  to  servitude,  and  live 
to  get  money  when  he  might  have  been  a 
teacher  of  truth  and  a  creator  of  beauty? 

It  happens  that  they  whom  great  misfortunes 
or  sorrows  have  overtaken  and  robbed  of  the 
possibility  of  joy  are  impelled  to  the  service 
and  comforting  of  others.  Despairing  of  their 
own  happiness,  they  find  relief  in  devoting 
themselves  to  those  for  whom  there  is  hope. 
So  long  as  we  are  of  use  to  some  one  in 
whom  we  can  take  interest  we  are  not  wholly 
wretched. 

There  is  nothing  deeper  in  us  than  the  desire 
to  live  in  others.  It  lies  at  the  root  of  the  crav- 
ing for  offspring,  at  the  heart  of  genius  bidding 
it  create  what  shall  give  delight  and  strength  to 
many.  It  is  part  of  the  universal  aversion  to 
annihilation. 

They  who  excel  are  modest.     They  see  the 

12 


1/8  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

infinite  possible,  and  what  they  have  attained 
seems  to  them  a  slight  thing. 

Ignorance  makes  us  bold;  wisdom  bids  us 
pause  and  consider. 

The  consciousness  that  we  are  not  living 
wholly  for  ourselves  gives  courage  to  bear  the 
ills  of  life. 

If  the  young  find  more  exuberant  delight  in 
life  than  the  old,  they  suffer  more  bitter  pain 
and  disappointment;  for  the  old,  in  losing 
something  of  the  capacity  to  enjoy,  lose  much 
of  the  illusion  which  gives  to  the  ills  we  are 
all  heirs  to  their  chief  poignancy. 

Who  hopes  fears,  and  who  believes  has  mis- 
givings; and  yet  the  bravest  and  the  noblest 
hope  and  believe  most. 

"  None  are  happy,"  says  Leopardi,  "  but  they 
who  are  ignorant  of  truth."  When  we  consider 
how  few  there  are  who  care  for  truth,  who  love 
it  as  they  love  their  passions,  prejudices,  and 
interests,  it  scarcely  seems  irrational  to  think 
that  they  feel  that  a  knowledge  of  truth  would 
make  them  miserable. 

The  greater  part  of  men  live  from  mere  habit, 
—  they  run  on  like  a  stream,  they  tread  a  beaten 
path.  They  are  not  each  day  inspired  and  made 
anew  by  fresh  thoughts  and  a  living  faith;  and 
therefore  they  are  shallow,  unhappy,  and  inferior. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  179 

Though  all  pleasure  were  vanity,  all  posses- 
sion emptiness,  they  nevertheless  who  seek  God, 
who  follow  after  wisdom  and  goodness,  are  the 
least  deceived  and  the  least  ignoble. 

One  may  feel  that  he  has  been  guided  and 
protected  by  a  special  providence  in  a  thousand 
ways,  and  yet  not  be  justified  in  thinking  his 
life  has  the  divine  approval;  for  one  may  be 
preserved  and  favored  for  what  is  to  be  accom- 
plished through  him  and  not  for  what  he  is  in 
himself. 

He  who  has  led  a  worthy  and  useful  life  has 
built  for  himself  a  refuge  into  which,  when  he 
is  old,  he  may  retire  and  live  on  the  memories 
of  the  past,  while  they  who  have  done  nothing, 
or  but  evil,  are  oppressed  by  a  sense  of  their 
nullity  when  it  is  no  longer  possible  for  them 
to  accomplish  anything. 

A  man's  ability  to  detach  himself  from  his 
private  interests  and  passions,  and  to  contem- 
plate things  from  a  high  point  of  view,  where 
what  is  always  and  everywhere  right  and  fair 
reveals  itself,  is  the  surest  evidence  of  his  cul- 
ture and  virtue. 

Opinions  lose  hold  on  the  people  when  they 
cease  to  be   accepted   and   advocated   by  able 
minds. 
.    The  powerful  and  the  rich  have  rarely  been 


ISO  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

and  can  hardly  be  virtuous,  and  since  it  is  better 
to  be  virtuous  than  to  be  powerful  or  rich,  it  is 
easy  to  understand  why  the  lowly,  the  mild,  and 
the  pure  in  heart  should  be  happier  and  more 
blessed  than  kings  and  great  captains. 

The  progress  of  the  mind  consists  in  ap- 
proaching still  nearer  to  the  ultimate  elements 
of  things  and  ideas,  in  discovering  in  things 
and  ideas  that  are  held  to  be  simple  and  irre- 
ducible something  ulterior  and  still  more  simple. 
Thus  all  advance  is  from  multiplicity  toward 
unity,  from  variety  toward  identity. 

We  cannot  know  the  whole  of  any  truth,  how- 
ever plain  it  may  seem  to  be,  for  every  truth  is 
involved  in  all  truth,  and  since  no  human  mind 
can  grasp  the  whole  system  of  truth,  it  follows 
that  no  one  can  comprehend  even  its  slightest 
part.  Faith,  therefore,  enters  as  an  element 
into  all  our  knowledge  and  science. 

It  may  be  possible  to  make  some  approach 
toward  seeing  things  as  they  are,  but  to  see 
men  as  they  are  we  may  not  hope  more  than 
we  may  hope  to  know  ourselves. 

An  original  author  must  create  the  taste  by 
which  he  is  to  be  appreciated.  He  must  there- 
fore have  sufficient  force  of  thought  and  im- 
agination t6  attract  and  hold  readers,  until 
they  accustom  themselves  to  look  with  his  eyes, 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  l8l 

to  see  and  admire  what  he  sees  and  bodies 
forth. 

True  thoughts  expressed  in  right  words  are 
as  well-set  jewels  on  the  brows  of  fair  women. 

Men  actively  engaged  in  affairs  have  writ- 
ten great  books,  —  Xenophon,  for  instance,  and 
Thucydides,  and  Cicero,  and  Dante,  and  Shake- 
speare, and  Bacon,  and  Descartes,  and  Goethe. 

If  we  keep  calm  and  unhurried,  and  continue 
to  be  self -active,  we  shall  find  time  to  do  what- 
ever the  most  trying  situations  may  demand. 

He  whose  faith  is  sure,  whose  love  is  pure, 
whose  insight  is  true,  is  not  disturbed  or  dis- 
heartened when  the  course  of  things  is  against 
him.  He  can  do  but  a  man's  work,  and  in  doing 
this  in  a  right  spirit  and  with  all  his  heart  he 
finds  peace  and  repose. 

The  wider  the  knowledge  and  the  deeper  the 
view,  the  more  difficult  it  becomes  to  have  a 
good  conscience  in  the  midst  of  a  world  all 
awry. 

In  the  measure  in  which  we  are  persuaded  we 
are  persuasive. 

Speak  of  those  with  whom  thou  hast  sym- 
pathy; of  others  as  little  as  may  be. 

They  who  have  done  none  of  life's  drudgery 
cannot  receive  its  highest  rewards. 

The  power  to  know  and  love  pure  truth  and 


182  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

beauty  is  acquired,  and  it  is  necessarily  lacking 
in  the  multitude  who  will  not  or  cannot  take  the 
pains  by  which  the  faculty  is  produced. 

When  we  look  through  an  anthology  and  ex- 
amine the  pages  chosen  from  the  best  authors, 
it  is  disappointing  to  find  how  rarely  we  meet 
with  perfect  writing.  In  the  great  poets  there 
are  lines  and  passages  which  could  not  be  im- 
proved, but  nearly  all  our  English  prose  is 
defective. 

Style  is  the  essential  thing  in  writing.  The 
thoughts  and  facts  belong  or  may  belong  to  any 
one ;  but  the  setting,  the  coloring,  the  expression 
are  the  author's.  They  are  like  the  tint,  fra- 
grance, and  form  of  the  flower,  constituting  it 
a  thing  of  beauty,  apart  and  distinct.  It  is  in 
style  that  the  creative  faculty  reveals  itself;  it 
is  style  that  makes  the  artist,  whether  he  be 
poet  or  painter,  musician  or  orator. 

When  intellectual  light  and  moral  energy  are 
rightly  stored  in  the  pages  of  a  book  they  are 
made  sacramental  and  permanently  accessible  to 
inquiring  minds  and  yearning  souls. 

Few,  even  among  scholars,  are  capable  of 
discerning  and  appreciating  beauties  of  style; 
but  in  every  civilized  age  these  judges  are  found, 
however  small  their  number,  and  it  is  they  who 
confer  immortality  on  the  chosen  band.  They 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  183 

are  the  arbiters  of  taste,  and  weave  the  crowns 
which  do  not  fade. 

Style  is  susceptible  of  many  qualities.  It  may 
be  forcible,  lofty,  flexible,  simple,  concise,  lucid, 
cogent,  poetic,  logical,  harmonious,  rugged, 
sparkling,  vivacious,  sublime.  It  may  take  all 
the  moods  of  the  mind,  which  are  infinitely 
various;  but  in  each  one  it  tends  to  assume 
the  traits  of  his  predominant  thought  and  mood, 
and  hence  we  say  that  style  is  of  the  man  himself. 

The  tongue  is  the  chief  instrument  of  the 
brain.  Had  man  never  learned  to  speak,  he 
would  never  have  learned  to  think,  would  never 
have  organized  society,  would  never  have  cre- 
ated the  arts  and  sciences,  would  never  have 
developed  civilization.  Like  God,  he  makes  all 
things  by  his  word. 

Simplicity  and  clearness  are  the  essential 
qualities  of  style.  Where  they  are  lacking  there 
is  no  style.  Nothing  seems  easier  than  to  write 
naturally  and  lucidly,  but  nothing  is  more  diffi- 
cult. It  is  an  art  which  much  patience  and  pains 
alone  can  make  one  master  of;  an  art  which 
can  be  retained  only  by  persevering  practice  and 
unremitting  watchfulness.  What  is  so  written 
must  seem  to  have  been  produced  without  effort. 
It  impresses  the  reader  as  so  inevitable  that  he 
imagines  any  one  who  had  this  thought  or  fact 


1 84  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

«. 

to  express  would  have  clothed  it  in  these  words ; 
but  the  author  found  them  only  after  seeking, 
weighing,  and  choosing,  often  indeed  failed  to 
discover  them  until  a  favoring  mood  or  a  happy 
accident  revealed  them  to  him,  and  he  could 
never  have  found  them  at  all  had  he  not  spent 
years  in  the  cultivation  of  his  style. 

The  religious,  moral,  and  political  life  of  a 
people,  its  commerce,  studies,  and  wars,  and 
more  possibly  than  all  these,  the  number  and 
genius  of  its  great  writers  are  the  forces  by 
which  its  language  is  developed  and  polished. 

Let  those  who  have  the  power  to  persuade 
their  fellows  to  read  and  study  the  vital  books 
devote  themselves  to  this  rather  than  to  writing 
something  of  their  own,  even  though  it  have 
merit ;  for  it  is  more  important  that  men  should 
apply  themselves  to  the  existing  literatures  than 
that  they  should  be  supplied  with  new  books. 

To  read  to  find  replies  to  objections  or  argu- 
ments against  opponents  is  to  turn  from  the 
pure  light.  Hold  to  thy  faith,  give  little  heed 
to  difficulties,  study  to  know  and  love  truth  and 
to  embody  it  in  thy  life  and  words.  If  thou 
remain  steadfast  and  walk  in  this  way,  thou  shalt 
rise  to  the  higher  points  of  view  where  doubts 
and  darkness  fall  away. 

If  thou  suffer  thyself  to  be  tossed  about  by 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  185 

passions  and  suspicions  thou  shalt  become  a 
disturber  and  malefactor. 

As  an  illumined  mind  spreads  light,  so  a 
peaceful  soul  diffuses  contentment. 

If  thou  art  busy  improving  thyself  thou  shalt 
not  be  tempted  to  meddle  with  the  affairs  of 
others,  nor  be  disturbed  when  others  meddle 
with  thine. 

If  the  sense  of  duty  be  excluded  from  life,  the 
root  of  that  which  gives  it  meaning  and  worth 
is  plucked  up;  and  if  from  duty  love  be  elimi- 
nated, there  remains  but  a  skeleton:  the  dry 
bones  are  all  in  place,  but  there  is  no  beauty,  no 
joy,  no  soul.  Now,  the  love  which  may  be 
wedded  to  duty  is  born  of  religion. 

The  less  success  satisfies,  the  less  failure  dis- 
courages thee,  the  greater  the  hope  that  thou 
shalt  come  to  understand  the  infinite  worth  of 
truth  and  love. 

Agreement  is  easy  when  there  is  question  of 
things  for  which  we  do  not  care. 

Let  thy  sympathy  be  as  wide  as  God's,  who 
loves  all  that  He  has  made. 

To  be  afraid  to  die,  if  religion  or  patriotism 
or  friendship  command,  is  to  hold  the  life  of 
sensation  more  precious  than  that  of  righteous- 
ness and  love.  Hence  contempt  for  death  when- 
ever proper  occasion  offers  has  ever  been  held  to 


1 86  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

be  a  mark  of  noble  nature.  It  is  this,  and  not 
the  physical  courage,  nor  the  butchery  and  ruin, 
that  gives  value  and  honor  to  the  soldier's 
calling. 

Woman  wholly  chaste  is  everywhere  safe. 
An  impure  spirit  cannot  breathe  the  air  which 
environs  her. 

If  men  would  but  consider  the  degradation, 
misery,  and  hopelessness  to  which  fallen  women 
are  doomed,  they  would  keep  as  far  away  as 
from  contagion  and  death. 

The  most  complete  disappointment,  the  most 
bitter  disillusion  befalls  those  who  seek  the  good 
of  life  in  the  indulgence  of  appetite  and  lust. 
They  are  like  the  insane  who  know  their  insanity 
and  feel  that  it  is  immedicable. 

There  is  nothing  so  humiliating  as  to  know 
what  a  controlling  influence  the  intestines  have 
on  the  thoughts  and  ways  of  men.  Our  whole 
existence  centres  around  eating,  drinking,  di- 
gesting, excreting,  and  begetting.  It  is  miracu- 
lous that  from  out  such  a  slough  immortal  hopes 
should  arise. 

The  feebleness  of  the  race  is  due  chiefly  to 
man's  incontinence,  above  all  to  the  inconti- 
nence of  the  wedded. 

If  the  highest  man  and  woman,  the  most 
gentle,  mild,  chaste,  loving,  patient,  and  helpful 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  1 8? 

is  the  best  of  all  we  know  on  earth,  enlightened 
minds  shall  ever  be  thankful  that  the  catholic 
religion  has  prevailed,  and  shall  cherish  the  hope 
that  its  influence  may  continue  to  the  end. 

It  is  not  the  importance  of  a  truth  but  the 
receptive  mood  and  temper  that  give  it  power 
over  us.  The  divinest  words  of  the  Saviour 
have  fallen  on  innumerable  minds  in  whom  they 
have  struck  no  light  and  awakened  no  thrill  of 
awe. 

Faith  can  live  only  in  hearts  whose  home  is 
above  the  world  of  success,  fashion,  and  ap- 
plause; and  they  who  are  greatly  influenced 
by  these  things  are  never  true  followers  of 
Christ.  Our  trust  is  in  what  we  love,  and  what 
we  love  is  like  ourselves.  If  we  are  material,  it 
is  matter;  if  spiritual,  it  is  God.  We  can  nor 
know  nor  follow  the  meek  and  lowly  One,  if  we 
are  fascinated  by  the  pride  and  pomp  of  the 
world.  "  How  can  ye  believe,"  He  asks,  "  if  ye 
seek  praise  one  of  another?" 

The  vulgar  envy  the  rich  and  the  powerful; 
choice  spirits  know  that  only  the  wise  and  loving 
are  to  be  envied. 

Nothing  that  leaves  the  mind  unraised  can 
be  a  good  for  man. 

Lost  money  or  reputation  or  place  may  be 
regained,  but  time  misspent  cannot  be  made 


1 88  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

good  in  all  eternity.  Never  shall  it  be  possible 
for  us  to  know  or  to  love  or  to  be  as  much  as 
we  might  have  known  and  loved  and  been. 

As  self-respect  forbids  the  tolerance  of  bodily 
uncleanness  in  one's  self,  though  it  be  hidden, 
so  does  it  command  us  to  turn  from  sensual 
desires  and  deceitful  and  cowardly  thoughts, 
however  deeply  buried  within  the  inmost  soul. 

No  man  is  good  because  he  is  not  a  trans- 
gressor, but  he  alone  who  strives  and  loves  and 
helps. 

Teach  me,  O  God,  to  desire  nothing  save  thy 
will  and  the  good  of  my  fellow-men. 

The  multitude  are  not  deeply  in  earnest  about 
anything,  and  unless  one  is  deeply  in  earnest  to 
get,  whether  money  or  position  or  skill,  or  to 
acquire  philosophic  insight  or  scientific  knowl- 
edge or  virtue  or  wisdom  or  a  spiritual  mind, 
he  is  and  must  remain  one  of  the  multitude. 

Concern  thyself  with  the  words  and  actions 
of  others  only  when  duty  compels,  or  when  thou 
mayst  find  in  them  a  source  of  light  and  strength 
or  be  of  help. 

Modesty  is  the  best  evidence  of  good  sense, 
as  to  be  wise  in  one's  own  conceit  is  the  surest 
mark  of  folly. 

Lying,  stealing,  flattery,  and  dissimulation 
are  the  vices  of  beggars,  slaves,  and  all  base  and 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  189 

cowardly  natures,  and  they  are  therefore  the 
most  contemptible  of  vices. 

Strive  to  be  useful  and  thou  shalt  become 
good;  seek  wisdom  and  thou  shalt  gain  knowl- 
edge; seek  what  is  right  and  thou  shalt  find 
what  is  pleasant;  learn  to  love  and  blessedness 
shall  be  thine. 

When  nothing  has  power  to  interrupt  the 
course  of  the  thoughts  by  which  we  live,  —  not 
business  nor  worry  nor  travel  nor  infirm  health, 
—  we  possess  the  secret  of  self-improvement. 

It  is  easy  to  find  actors  who  can  play  the  parts 
of  fools  and  villains,  of  seducers  and  bullies,  of 
drunkards  and  hypocrites,  but  one  who  shall 
take  that  of  a  philosopher,  a  saint,  or  a  hero  is 
hardly  to  be  discovered;  and  so  in  real  life  one 
may  without  difficulty  be  shallow  and  worthless, 
base  and  heartless,  foppish  and  false,  but  they 
alone  who  contend  ceaselessly  and  falter  not 
make  themselves  wise,  generous,  and  true. 

Defend  me,  O  eternal  Father,  not  from  my 
enemies,  not  from  poverty,  sickness,  and  death, 
but  from  myself,  from  my  weak  will  and  lawless 
passions. 

The  worst  fate  that  can  befall  a  man 
is  to  drag  minds  down  instead  of  exalting 
them. 

If  thou  wouldst  be  remembered,  do  or  write 


IQO  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

what  shall  never  cease  to  give  joy  and  courage. 
None  but  helpers  live. 

The  hearts  that  are  most  deeply  stirred  utter 
the  truest  and  the  most  beautiful  thoughts,  — 
most  deeply  stirred  by  the  highest  and  the  holiest 
things. 

Since  for  God  there  is  neither  past  nor  future, 
for  Him  whatever  is  to  be  already  is.  Disturb 
not  thyself  overmuch,  my  little  man. 

Cats  and  dogs  find  women  to  love  them.  Why 
should  a  man  be  filled  with  conceit  if  he  win  a 
woman's  smile? 

Were  it  not  for  the  conversation  they  hold 
with  the  dead,  how  lonely  the  best  would  be; 
and  since  such  intercourse  may  be  had  by  all, 
why  need  any  one  be  lonely? 

It  is  the  passion  in  religious  and  moral  truth 
that  makes  it  communicable,  and  when  it  is  set 
forth  as  dryly  as  a  mathematical  demonstration 
it  has  nor  meaning  nor  charm. 

What  worse  than  waste  of  time  is  there  not 
in  the  endless  pains  taken  to  make  the  mys- 
teries of  faith  plain  to  reason  ?  Should  we  com- 
prehend them  they  would  cease  to  be  mysteries 
and  would  lose  their  efficacy. 

It  is  a  weakness  with  Americans  that  they 
cannot  have  an  opinion  but  they  would  make  it 
the  foundation  of  a  party  or  a  sect. 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  1 91 

No  more  forever  shall  it  be  possible  for  me 
to  run  and  leap  and  swim  and  dance  and  spend 
whole  days  wandering  in  fields  and  woods  as 
erstwhile.  But  then  the  blessedness  of  the 
inner  life  was  hidden  from  me,  which  now,  as 
the  years  go  by,  reveals  itself  to  me  more  and 
more  as  the  one  unfailing  source  of  joy  and 
blessedness,  while  the  delights  of  the  young  I 
recognize  to  be  no  better  than  the  skipping  of 
lambs  and  the  play  of  colts.  For  this  above  all, 
O  Father  in  heaven,  am  I  grateful  to  Thee: 
that  the  soul  cannot  grow  old.  The  world  of 
my  childhood  and  youth  is  become  as  a  gar- 
den which  winter  has  killed,  and  yet  Thy 
world  is  more  real  and  pleasant  than  when 
the  flowers  bloomed  and  all  the  year  was 
spring. 

Ignorance  of  the  future  makes  life  endurable. 
However  great  the  pleasures  or  the  honors 
which  may  be  in  store  for  us,  if  in  knowing  them 
we  should  be  made  aware  of  all  the  circum- 
stances preceding,  accompanying,  and  follow- 
ing, we  should  experience  a  sense  of  disillusion. 
Hope  would  lose  its  charm,  imagination  its 
wings,  and  the  motives  to  noble  effort  their 
spring.  Were  the  senses  stronger  and  more 
acute,  sights,  sounds,  and  smells  would  give  only 
pain.  .Were  the  capacity  for  emotion  greatly 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

increased,  the  world  would  become  a  place  of 
torture.  Defects  provoke  qualities,  and  the  lim- 
itations which  hem  the  soul  stir  within  it  con- 
sciousness of  its  immortal  origin  and  destiny. 
Had  man  the  strength  of  the  lion,  he  had  never 
developed  the  mightier  power  of  mind;  were 
the  period  of  the  helplessness  of  childhood  short- 
ened, he  would  retrograde  to  barbarism  or  sav- 
agery; were  labor  not  required  to  supply  his 
daily  wants,  he  would  content  himself  with  an 
animal  existence.  Could  the  good  know  what 
a  blessed  thing  it  is  to  die,  they  might  lose  the 
courage  to  live. 

There  is  no  situation  which  may  not  be  made 
the  occasion  for  the  acquirement  or  exercise  of 
a  virtue,  whether  it  be  prudence  or  patience  or 
humility  or  courage  or  politeness  or  sincerity  or 
contentedness.  When  all  happenings  are  con- 
templated and  made  use  of  in  this  spirit,  the  soul 
is  filled  with  joy  and  peace.  Little  by  little  we 
come  to  feel  that  to  live  is  to  grow,  and  we 
welcome  all  that  offers  opportunity  to  increase 
inner  strength  and  worth,  hardly  caring  whether 
it  be  pleasant  or  disagreeable. 

How  can  a  man  think  himself  fortunate  in 
obtaining  great  wealth  or  office,  if  he  give  heed 
to  the  fact  that  the  involvements  and  obliga- 
tions are  a  hindrance  to  intellectual  and  moral 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  193 

progress?  "  Learn  to  despise  exterior  things," 
says  A  Kempis,  "  and  give  thyself  to  the  in- 
terior, and  thou  shalt  see  the  kingdom  of  God 
come  unto  thee." 

Fear,  like  love,  creates  its  object,  and  it  is 
easy  to  dread  most  the  things  which  will  never 
happen. 

A  true  man  is  distressed  by  the  wrong  he 
does  more  than  by  that  he  suffers. 

We  are  impelled  by  a  law  of  nature  to  believe 
the  things  which  are  necessary  to  our  peace, 
and  faith  in  God  is  indispensable  to  the  tran- 
quillity and  repose  which  are  the  central  feel- 
ing of  all  happiness. 

Be  like  a  bird  that  chances  heedless  to  alight 

Upon  a  bough  too  frail ; 
Who  feels  the  branches  bend,  yet  sings  with  all  his  might, 

Knowing  his  wings  won't  fail. 

The  poet's  ecstasy,  the  painter's  vision,  the 
orator's  enthusiasm,  the  saint's  rapture,  have 
no  higher  worth  than  a  miser's  madness  or  a 
lecher's  craving,  if  there  be  no  Supreme  Spirit 
who,  being  the  source  and  end  of  all  things, 
gives  all  things  meaning  and  value. 

He  who  falls  from  virtue  and  honor  falls 
from  the  summit  of  earthly  things,  and  his 
degradation  is  the  most  complete. 

If  thou  hast  power  to  destroy  thy  fellow-man, 
13 


194  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

so  has  a  microbe;  but  to  have  the  power  and 
the  will  to  save  is  godlike. 

It  is  only  in  solitude  that  a  man  belongs 
wholly  to  himself. 

Though  I  weary  of  everything  else,  says 
Petrarch,  I  never  tire  of  my  studies,  which 
from  day  to  day  give  me  more  and  more 
delight. 

There  are  various  ways  of  prolonging  life. 
None  is  more  effectual  than  the  right  use  of 
time. 

Work  is  for  man  what  wings  are  for  the 
bird,  —  the  means  whereby  he  raises  himself 
above  the  earth  and  makes  Nature  his  servant. 

Wouldst  thou  become  learned?  Hate  thy 
ignorance.  Wouldst  thou  grow  wise?  Hate 
thy  folly.  Wouldst  thou  become  holy?  Hate 
thy  sin. 

Death  has  snatched  thy  friend  from  thee; 
but  thou  art  running  to  overtake  him  and  soon 
shalt  be  with  him  again. 

He  who  is  capable  of  entertaining  an  evil 
design  will  have  little  scruple  as  to  the  means 
by  which  it  may  be  carried  into  effect. 

Nothing  is  interesting  but  life,  and  the  things 
each  one  delights  in  are  the  test  of  the  quality 
of  his  life.  The  attraction  of  opposites  is  ap- 
parent merely.  Nature's  law  is  —  like  seeks 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  195 

like.  Reason  craves  for  unity;  the  heart  for 
harmony.  All  things  proceed  from  the  One, 
and  are  drawn  to  their  source. 

It  is  a  paltry  thing  to  excel  one's  contem- 
poraries. They  who  count  must  enter  the  com- 
pany of  the  greatest  in  whatever  age,  arfd  be 
measured  by  the  standard  they  have  fixed.  The 
crowd  of  the  merely  successful  belong  to  the 
multitude,  whom  oblivion  quickly  swallows. 

To  live  joyfully  and  free  from  care  would 
seem  to  be  happiness;  but  were  such  a  life  the 
lot  of  man  he  never  would  have  attained  wis- 
dom and  courage,  sympathy  and  love. 

If  men  were  more  compassionate,  more  ready 
to  spare  one  another  pains  and  labors,  would  not 
will  and  energy  and  self-trust  be  weakened? 

Nor  knowledge  nor  wealth  nor  fame  can  be 
felt  to  be  a  good  unless  it  be  shared.  Conscious- 
ness is  a  unity  in  duality,  and  the  self  which 
springs  from  union  and  communion  with  what 
is  other,  is  free  and  happy  only  in  quitting  itself 
to  find  itself  in  those  it  loves  and  helps. 

If  nothing  happen  to  fill  thee  with  joy,  think 
of  the  evil  which  is  absent  and  might  have 
befallen. 

Wouldst  thou  know  whether  thy  religion  is 
genuine,  whether  it  is  joy  and  love  and  right- 
eousness, examine  whether  thy  life  fills  others 


196  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

with  brave  and  cheerful  thoughts,  whether  it 
spurs  them  to  unselfish  and  helpful  deeds. 

These  are  the  sayings  of  the  wise  men  of 
Greece:  The  majority  are  evil;  Look  to  the 
end;  Seize  occasion;  Haste,  if  thou  wouldst 
fail;  Industry  is  everything;  Know  thyself; 
The  mean  is  best. 

A  clean  body  is  the  proper  shrine  of  an  illu- 
mined and  loving  soul. 

Thy  watch  ticks  thirty  million  times  a  year. 
How  much  mayest  thou  not  hope  to  accomplish 
if  thou  keep  diligently  at  work? 

Be  thankful  for  whatever  keeps  thee  humble, 
for  it  helps  to  save  thee  from  folly. 

The  notion  that  to  sweep  and  scrub  and  wash 
and  sew  is  a  woman's  work,  but  degrading  to 
a  man,  is  a  prejudice  inherited  from  savages 
and  barbarians.  Lincoln,  as  yet  little  known, 
accompanied  his  wife  to  Louisville  and  carried 
their  infant  in  his  arms  through  the  streets  as 
they  went  from  shop  to  shop  to  make  their 
little  purchases.  He  was  abler  to  bear  the  bur- 
den and  not  ashamed  to  do  any  right  thing. 
A  true  man  feels  that  all  honest  work  is  hon- 
orable to  man  and  woman  alike,  and  he  is 
ready  to  help,  whatever  the  task  that  needs 
doing. 

There   is   no   social   state   more   disgraceful, 


GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  197 

says  Cicero,  than  that  in  which  the  wealthiest 
are  considered  the  best. 

Nothing  is  so  vulgar  as  a  sneer. 

They  who  crawl  are  trampled  on. 

Minerva's  owl  begins  its  flight 
But  at  the  approach  of  gathering  night, 
And  when  the  shadows  longer  grow 
Wisdom's  calm  face  doth  fairest  show. 

If  the  mind  is  rich,  the  man  is  rich;  if  the 
heart  is  full  of  love,  life  is  full  of  joy. 

As  a  mighty  warrior  routs  army  after  army, 
so  a  vital  book  makes  mere  waste  paper  of 
whole  libraries. 

We  long  for  what  is  permanent,  yet  the 
beauty  which  never  changes  wearies  us.  Were 
the  flowers  to  retain  their  freshness  they  would 
lose  their  charm.  Were  a  fair  child  to  remain 
what  it  is  it  would  come  to  appear  to  be  un- 
natural. A  work  of  art,  if  it  be  near  us  day 
by  day,  ceases  to  delight  us.  The  immortal 
minds  which  from  our  bookshelves  make  cease- 
less appeal  to  us  are  neglected.  Familiarity 
breeds  contempt  and  custom  makes  stale.  The 
good  that  is  at  hand  we  care  not  for,  but  ven- 
ture life  and  fortune  to  seek  that  which  lies 
afar. 

Merely  to  know  what  a  world  of  wisdom  and 
beauty  is  asleep  around  me  in  my  books  is  joy 


198  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

and  strength,  even  while  I  leave  them  unvis- 
ited,  as  a  mother  is  happy  sitting  by  the  cradle 
of  her  slumbering  child,  though  forgetting  him 
her  thoughts  wander  far  away. 

They  who  have  nothing  to  say  have  often 
the  most  irresistible  impulse  to  speak. 

A  thief,  says  Ecclesiasticus,  is  better  than  a 
man  that  is  accustomed  to  lie. 

To  give  pleasure  is  easily  within  the  reach  of 
the  young,  the  frivolous,  and  the  rich;  but  only 
the  wise  and  loving  give  joy. 

Habit  need  not  give  greater  strength;  it  is 
sufficient  that  it  enable  us  to  do  the  things  we 
ought  with  greater  ease. 

After  the  joy  which  springs  from  right-doing, 
the  purest  and  sweetest  is  that  which  is  born 
of  companionship  with  spirits  akin  to  our  own. 

It  shall  never  be  well  with  thee  if  the  con- 
sciousness of  doing  well  is  not  sufficient  for 
thy  peace.  "  Well  doing  —  ill  report  —  a  king's 
portion." 


EPICTETUS 


EP1CTETUS 

OF  the  life  of  Epictetus  little  need  be  said. 
His  biography  is  his  character,  and  this 
lies  open  in  his  books,  where  the  fine  spirit  of 
an  earnest  and  noble  soul  still  breathes.  He 
was  born  in  Phrygia,  about  the  middle  of  the 
first  century.  His  mother  was  a  slave;  his 
father  is  unknown.  Epictetus  is  not  his  name, 
but  is  a  Greek  word  which  denotes  his  servile 
condition.  In  his  youth  he  became  the  property 
of  Epaphroditus,  a  freedman  of  Nero's,  who 
permitted  him  to  attend  the  lectures  of'Mu- 
sonius  Rufus,  one  of  the  most  celebrated 
teachers  in  Rome.  Having  acquired  freedom, 
he  began  himself  to  give  lessons;  but  he  was 
soon  sent  into  exile,  together  with  the  other 
philosophers,  by  the  Emperor  Domitian. 

Settling  at  Nicopolis,  in  Epirus  (the  modern 
Albania),  he  opened  a  school,  and  continued  to 
teach  the  doctrines  of  stoicism  to  the  time  of  his 
death,  at  the  age,  it  is  supposed,  of  nearly  a 
hundred  years.  He  was  feeble  in  body,  lame, 


2O2  GLIMPSES  OF   TRUTH. 

poor,  and  unmarried,  living  alone  until  he  took 
an  old  woman  into  his  house  to  care  for  an 
orphan  whom  he  had  adopted.  He  wrote  noth- 
ing, but  talked  with  his  pupils  in  a  familiar 
way  of  whatever  concerns  the  conduct  of  life. 
Arrian,  his  favorite  disciple,  took  notes  of  his 
conversations,  not  with  a  view  to  publication, 
but  for  his  own  use.  When,  however,  without 
his  knowledge,  they  had  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  several,  he  edited  them  himself.  Thus  we 
owe  to  an  accident  the  existence  of  the  "  Dis- 
courses," which  form  one  of  the  world's  vital 
books.  The  "  Manual  "  is  a  collection  of  aphor- 
isms taken  substantially  from  the  larger  work. 

Epictetus  was  not  the  founder  of  a  new  phi- 
losophy. Zeno,  the  originator  of  the  Stoic  sys- 
tem, was  his  master,  and  Zeno  himself  derived 
his  fundamental  principles  from  Antisthenes, 
the  author  of  the  cynic  school  and  the  friend 
of  Socrates. 

The  Greeks  are  the  creators  of  philosophy, 
and  their  earliest  attempt  at  systematic  thought 
was  an  effort  to  understand  Nature.  But  they 
soon  learned  that  it  was  necessary  to  begin  from 
within,  since  to  know  anything  man  must  first 
know  himself.  Thus  the  problem  of  the  con- 
duct of  life  forced  itself  upon  them.  This  is 
the  constant  preoccupation  of  Socrates,  who 


EPICTETUS.  203 

was  born  five  hundred  years  before  Epictetus. 
He  taught  that  the  good  is  to  be  sought  not 
in  outward  things,  nor  in  the  indulgence  of 
appetite,  but  in  virtue,  which  for  him,  however, 
is  an  intellectual  rather  than  a  moral  habit. 
His  calm  and  rational  temper  led  him  to  the 
belief  that  man  always  acts  in  accordance  with 
his  knowledge,  does  what  insight  shows  him 
to  be  useful  to  himself.  He  who  does,  evil  does 
it  from  a  mistake  of  judgment.  Sin  is  error. 
Virtue,  then,  being  chiefly  knowledge,  may  be 
taught,  and  to  teach  it  is  the  philosopher's  life 
work.  But  Socrates  moved  in  a  circle  from 
which  there  was  no  escape.  To  know  the  use- 
ful is  virtue.  But  what  is  the  useful?  That 
which  makes  for  virtue. 

Antisthenes  does  not  attempt  to  determine 
the  meaning  of  the  good.  He  simply  declares 
that  virtue  is  the  only  good,  and,  in  his  view, 
virtue  is  the  intelligent  conduct  of  life.  Right 
life  is  the  essential  good;  virtue  is  its  own  re- 
ward, and  one  need  not  look  to  its  results.  It 
is,  in  the  midst  of  whatever  vicissitudes,  a  sure 
possession.  The  virtuous  man  is  independent  of 
events,  and  stands  secure  against  fate  and  for- 
tune. The  world  is  full  of  things  he  does  not 
need ;  he  seeks  not  wealth,  nor  fame,  nor  honor, 
nor  pleasure. 


2O4  GLIMPSES    OF  TRUTH. 

Zeno,  the  Stoic,  born  in  Cyprus  about  340 
B.  c.,  is  the  heir  of  the  Cynics.  The  sage,  as  he 
conceives  the  truly  wise  and  virtuous  man,  is 
first  of  all  independent  of  the  world,  since  only 
on  this  condition  can  he  be  free  and  find  hap- 
piness in  himself  alone ;  and  as  what  is  external 
is  but  little  subject  to  human  will,  he  must  over- 
come the  world  within  himself  by  gaining  the 
mastery  over  the  feelings  and  desires  which  it 
excites.  To  be  self-contained  and  self-sufficient, 
to  remain  unmoved  in  the  presence  of  good  or 
of  evil  fortune,  imperturbable  though  the  uni- 
verse be  shattered,  is  the  goal  he  must  strive  to 
reach.  If  he  cannot  defend  himself  against  the 
excitations  of  feeling,  he  will  at  least  refuse  his 
assent,  and  thereby  prevent  them  from  becom- 
ing passions.  His  ideal  is  apathy,  absence  of 
emotion.  The  course  of  things  may  bring  him 
pleasure  and  pain,  but  since  he  holds  that  the 
one  is  not  a  good,  the  other  not  an  evil,  he  re- 
tains his  equanimity.  Virtue  is  his  sole  good, 
and  the  only  evil  is  to  permit  passion  to  con- 
quer reason.  This  withdrawal  of  the  individual 
within  himself,  however  it  may  be  modified  and 
supplemented,  is  an  essential  element  in  the 
Stoic's  conception  of  life.  Reason,  from  his 
point  of  view,  is  not  only  man's  nature,  but  that 
of  the  universe,  while  the  impulses  of  the  senses 


EPICTETUS.  2O5 

are  irrational.  The  soul,  as  part  of  the  World- 
Reason,  must  therefore  exclude  from  itself  all 
excitation  of  feeling. 

To  live  in  harmony  with  Nature  is  to  rise 
into  a  sphere  where  the  senses  cease  to  trouble ; 
it  is  to  live  in  communion  with  the  cosmic 
power,  from  which  all  things  proceed,  in  cheer- 
ful obedience  to  the  eternal  destiny,  which, 
being  the  will  of  God,  is  the  divine  law.  The 
wise  man  accepts  this  life  as  his  first  and  high- 
est duty.  It  is  the  task  which  Reason  imposes 
upon  him.  The  Stoics,  however,  holding  that 
man  is  by  nature  social,  require  that  he  lead  a 
social  life.  The  social  ideal  of  the  sage  is  that 
of  a  universal  ethical  community,  and  he  is  in- 
different to  forms  of  government  and  to  actu- 
ally existing  states.  He  is  a  citizen  of  the 
world,  demands  justice  and  sympathy  for  all, 
and  refuses  to  recognize  the  division  of  man- 
kind into  Greeks  and  barbarians. 

The  chief  stress  is  laid  upon  the  worth  of 
moral  personality,  upon  the  paramount  value 
of  the  good  that  lies  within,  though  the  duty 
of  co-operating  with  one's  fellow-men  for  the 
general  welfare  is  inculcated.  The  metaphys- 
ical principle  is  pantheistic,  and  involves  fatal- 
ism; but  the  Stoics,  preoccupied  exclusively 
with  moral  ideas  and  interests,  cared  little  for 


2O6  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

logical  consistency,  and  stoutly  asserted  the 
freedom  of  the  will,  holding  fast  to  liberty  of 
choice  and  to  the  universality  of  causation. 

Though  of  Greek  origin,  stoicism  attained  its 
highest  practical  significance  in  Rome,  where  its 
doctrines  seemed  to  be  suited  to  the  character 
of  the  people.  Those  stern,  self-controlled,  and 
brave  men  were  attracted  by  a  system  which 
emphasized  the  value  of  independence,  courage, 
and  imperturbability.  They  found  in  it  a  source 
of  the  moral  enthusiasm  which  the  pagan  reli- 
gions had  no  power  to  inspire.  They  were 
drawn  to  the  society  of  the  philosophers,  re- 
ceived them  into  their  houses,  and  became  their 
disciples.  By  daily  intercourse  with  these  ear- 
nest and  austere  teachers,  such  men  as  Scipio 
and  Lselius,  as  Brutus,  Cato,  and  Cicero,  were 
formed,.  The  prestige  and  authority  of  the 
preachers  of  stoicism  were  heightened  by  the 
general  corruption  which  was  undermining 
the  state,  and  the  public  calamities  which  were 
becoming  more  and  more  frequent. 

The  noblest  souls,  despairing  of  the  cause  of 
liberty,  withdrew  from  politics,  and  sought  con- 
solation in  a  philosophy  which  taught  them  how 
to  bear  the  ills  of  life  and  how  to  die.  In 
Rome,  where  only  what  is  practical  was  rightly 
appreciated,  little  attention  was  given  to  the 


EPICTETUS.  207 

metaphysical  presuppositions  of  stoicism,  and 
the  great  teachers,  losing  sight  of  the  logical 
requirements  of  the  system,  took  what  seemed 
to  them  true  and  to  the  purpose  wherever  it 
was  found.  Indeed,  contradiction  and  incon- 
sistency did  not  repel,  as  we  have  seen,  the 
early  Stoics,  and  in  its  Roman  development  the 
philosophy  became  more  and  more  eclectic. 

Epictetus,  Seneca,  and  Marcus  Aurelius  are 
the  three  famous  names  of  this  later  school  of 
stoicism,  and  they  are  all  teachers  of  the  con- 
duct of  life,  in  love  with  inner  perfection,  and 
comparatively  heedless  of  mere  speculation.  In 
the  midst  of  the  general  decadence  and  threaten- 
ing collapse  of  the  civilized  world,  they  sought 
to  rouse  conscience;  and  as  the  pagan  religion 
could  do  nothing  for  them,  they  strove  to  give 
a  kind  of  sacredness  to  human  wisdom.  To 
derive  profit  from  their  works  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  understand  their  theories.  All  that  is 
required  is  an  open  mind  and  a  tractable  heart. 
What  is  speculative  disappears  in  the  presence 
of  the  practical  worth  of  the  truths  they  utter. 
To  read  them  aright  we  need  an  attentive  and 
devout  spirit  rather  than  an  acute  and  curious 
intellect. 

Of  these  three  teachers  of  the  later  stoicism, 
Epictetus  is  the  noblest  character  and  the  great- 


208  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

est  authority.  His  life  is  more  completely  in 
harmony  with  his  doctrine.  He  rises  in  moral 
elevation  to  the  level  of  his  maxims  and  pre- 
cepts. His  purity  equals  his  insight.  He  is  the 
venerable  sage.  He  is  the  saint  of  a  philosoph- 
ical religion,  a  man  who  from  an  abject  condi- 
tion raised  himself  to  the  worthiest  dispositions 
of  mind  and  heart,  who  in  the  midst  of  a  cor- 
rupt society  remained  unstained  and  faithful, 
his  thought  fixed  on  the  highest  moral  ideals, 
and  following  to  the  end  his  vocation  as  a 
preacher  of  righteousness  —  a  slave,  a  cripple, 
a  pauper,  as  his  epitaph  declares,  but  dear  to  the 
gods.  He  has  drawn  for  us  an  ideal  of  the 
Stoic  sage,  in,  which  his  own  character  is  por- 
trayed. He  accuses  neither  God  nor  man;  he 
controls  desire;  he  knows  not  anger,  nor  re- 
sentment, nor  envy,  nor  pity ;  he  fences  himself 
with  virtuous  shame.  He  has  nothing  to  con- 
ceal ;  he  does  not  fear  exile  or  death,  for  wher- 
ever and  however  he  is  there  also  is  God.  But 
it  is  not  enough  that  he  be  good  in  and  for 
himself.  He  is  a  messenger  sent  by  Zeus  to 
instruct  men  concerning  good  and  evil,  to  point 
out  to  them  that  they  walk  in  wrong  ways. 
He  must  cry  out :  "  O  mortals,  whither  are  ye 
hasting?  Why  do  ye  tumble  about,  like  the 
blind?  The  good  is  not  in  the  body;  it  is  not 


EPICTETUS.  2O9 

in  wealth,  or  power,  or  empire;  it  lies  in  your- 
selves. God  has  sent  you  one  to  teach  you  by 
his  example.  Take  notice  of  me  that  I  am 
without  a  country,  without  a  house,  without  an 
estate,  without  a  servant:  I  lie  on  the  ground; 
have  no  wife,  no  children,  no  coat,  but  have 
only  earth  and  heaven  and  one  poor  cloak.  And 
what  need  I  ?  Am  I  not  without  sorrow,  with- 
out fear?  Am  I  not  free?  Did  I  ever  blame 
God  or  man?  Did  I  ever  accuse  any  one? 
Have  any  of  you  seen  me  look  discontented  ?  " 
Epictetus  is  direct,  plain,  and  earnest  in  his 
speech.  His  style  is  bare  of  ornament,  vigor- 
ous, and  incisive.  He  is  always  serious,  often 
stern,  and  at  times  pathetic.  He  does  not  de- 
liver finished  discourses,  is  heedless  of  rhetori- 
cal ornament,  and  wholly  intent  on  improving 
his  hearers  by  inciting  them  to  the  love  and 
practice  of  virtue.  He  is  not  so  much  an  orator 
as  a  brave,  genuine  man,  whose  whole  being 
vibrates  in  his  words,  which  are  vital  and  elec- 
tric. They  are  the  honest  and  fearless  expres- 
sion of  what  he  thinks  in  his  heart,  of  what  he 
feels  and  lives.  They  are  the  utterance  of  what 
is  deepest  and  permanent  in  man,  and  there- 
fore they  never  lose  the  power  to  stimulate  and 
nourish  faith  in  the  worth  of  a  life  led  in  obedi- 
ence to  the  divine  commands.  The  simple  and 


2IO  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

straightforward  manner  in  which  he  speaks  the 
highest  truth  has  made  him  a  favorite  not  with 
scholars  merely,  but  with  all  classes  of  readers. 
Whoever  is  persuaded  that  life  is  chiefly  con- 
duct may  derive  help  from  him.  Only  the 
learned  can  read  Plato  with  profit,  and  the  few- 
est of  these  study  him,  but  an  ordinary  mind 
may  find  in  Epictetus  a  friend  and  teacher,  for 
his  philosophy  is  of  the  most  practical  char- 
acter and  easily  understood.  Wisdom  consists 
in  knowing  how  to  distinguish  between  what 
is  our  own  and  what  is  not  ours.  Our  will, 
our  opinions,  desires,  inclinations,  and  aversions 
are  ours;  the  rest  —  body,  possessions,  honor, 
and  reputation  —  is  not  ours.  The  divine  law 
bids  us  hold  fast  to  what  is  our  own,  and  make 
no  claim  to  what  is  not  ours.  God  in  endowing 
us  with  free  will  gives  us  control  over  what  is 
ours,  but  other  things  He  has  not  placed  in  our 
power.  A  man's  business  is  with  himself,  with 
learning  to  think  rightly  and  to  will  wisely. 
Here  he  is  master,  here  he  has  full  control.  Let 
him  give  heed  to  this,  and  in  other  things  resign 
himself  with  a  cheerful  heart  to  the  guidance 
of  the  all-wise  Father  who  rules  the  whole. 
Since  we  cannot  determine  the  course  of  Nature, 
it  is  our  duty  to  accept  with  courage  and  resig- 
nation whatever  befalls.  Is  money,  or  friend, 


EPICTETUS.  211 

or  wife,  or  child  taken  from  us,  let  us  remember 
that  they  never  were  ours;  they  were  but  lent 
to  us,  and  have  been  returned  to  the  owner. 
Shall  we  complain  when  He  asks  us  to  restore 
what  belongs  to  Him?  But  it  lies  with  us  to 
have  an  independent  soul  and  a  victorious  will, 
to  remain  imperturbable,  serene,  reverent,  and 
thankful,  despite  disgrace  and  misfortune,  which 
cannot  touch  our  inmost  being  or  deprive  us  of 
freedom  and  virtue.  These  are  the  sole  good, 
and  so  long  as  they  are  ours  all  else  is  unim- 
portant. Will  that  things  happen  as  they  do, 
and  nothing  shall  happen  contrary  to  thy  will. 
But  how  shall  I  bear  the  wrongs  which  the 
wicked  inflict  ?  May  not  God  choose  His  agents 
to  demand  of  thee  what  He  has  lent?  Thou 
art  but  a  player  to  whom  a  role  has  been  as- 
signed. Take  cheerfully  whatever  character  is 
given  thee,  whether  it  be  that  of  a  beggar  or 
that  of  a  king.  Thy  sole  business  is  to  act 
well  the  part  to  which  God  has  appointed  thee. 
Think  of  Him  as  often  as  thou  breathest,  and  let 
thy  whole  study  and  desire  be  to  know  and  do 
His  will. 

For  Epictetus  a  virtuous  life  is  not  a  means, 
but  an  end.  The  sage  does  right  not  from  the 
hope  of  prosperity  and  good  name,  not  that  he 
may  have  health  of  body  and  mind,  not  because 


212  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

wise  behavior  produces  a  contented  and  happy 
temper,  but  he  does  what  is  just,  avoids  what 
is  base,  without  thought  of  reward  or  punish- 
ment, impelled  solely  by  a  sense  of  duty.  He 
clings  to  virtue  though  virtue  be  his  death-sen- 
tence, and  though  he  have  no  expectation  of  a 
future  life.  He  makes  no  sacrifice  in  abandon- 
ing all  things  for  virtue,  for  virtue  is  his  only 
good.  He  who  wishes  to  please  men,  who  de- 
sires to  be  known  and  praised  even  for  his 
virtue,  is  not  a  lover  of  virtue,  as  he  who  loves 
money  or  pleasure  or  glory  is  not  a  lover  of 
mankind.  The  wise  man's  will  rolls  like  a 
wheel  with  steady  and  even  motion  toward  the 
one  eternal  goal,  to  which  the  universe  also  is 
drawn.  "If  there  be  any  worth  in  thee,  O 
man,  learn  to  walk  alone  and  to  converse  with 
thyself!" 

In  the  "  Manual "  Epictetus  appears  as  a 
stern,  uncompromising  Stoic.  In  the  "  Dis- 
courses "  we  find  him  in  the  midst  of  his 
friends  and  disciples,  where  he  takes  a  more 
human  and  sympathetic  tone.  Here  he  infuses 
into  his  morality  the  glow  of  religion,  which 
makes  it  vital  and  effective.  We  are  not  al- 
ways made  to  feel  that  virtue  lacks  vigor,  unless 
it  be  hard  and  repellent,  that  pride  heightens 
truth,  or  that  insolence  is  a  mark  of  goodness, 


EPICTETUS.  213 

or  that  harshness  is  zeal,  or  modest  assertion 
of  opinion  a  compromise  with  error.     We  al- 
most seem  to  hear  Thrasea  declare  that  he  fears 
to  hate  even  vice  too  much,  lest  perchance  he 
come  to  hate  his  fellow-men.    It  is  in  the  "  Dis- 
courses "  that  he  tells  us  that  the  true  Stoic  is 
"  the  father  of  mankind ;    that  all  men  are  his 
sons  and  all  women  his  daughters.     He  attends 
to  all,  takes  care  of  all.    Is  it  from  impertinence 
that  he  rebukes  those  he  meets?    He  does  it  as 
a  father,  as  a  brother,  as  a  minister  of  the  com- 
mon parent,  Zeus."    He  does  not  marry,  he  has 
no  children,  he  accepts  no  office,  that  nothing 
may  interfere  with  the  work  which  God  has 
given  him  to  do.     He  is  careful  of  his  health 
and  appearance,  lest  he  repel  those  whom  he 
wishes  to  attract.     Above  all,  he  is  clean  of 
heart,  for  how,  if  he  is  himself  guilty,  shall  he 
reprove  others?     He  watches   and  labors   for 
men,  becomes  purer  day  by  day;    he  rules  all 
his  thoughts  as  the  friend,  as  the  minister  of 
the  gods,  as  a  partner  in  the  empire  of  Zeus. 
He  has,  besides,  so  much  patience  as  to  appear 
to  the  vulgar  insensible  and  like  a  stone;    "  for 
there  is  this  fine  circumstance  connected  with  the 
character  of  a  Cynic :  that  he  must  be  beaten  like 
an  ass,  and  yet  when  beaten  must  love  those  who 
beat  him  as  the  father,  as  the  brother  of  all." 


214  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

Epictetus  does  not  reject  the  pantheism  of 
the  Stoics  nor  the  polytheism  of  his  age,  but 
whatever  his  theological  opinions,  which  seem 
to  have  been  vague,  he  does  not  think  of  God 
as  an  indeterminate  somewhat,  but  as  a  person 
to  whom  he  is  bound  by  ties  of  obedience,  rev- 
erence, and  love;  and  though  he  often  speaks 
of  the  gods,  the  Supreme  Being  is  never  absent 
from  his  mind.  He  is  the  creator  of  the  world 
and  the  ruler  of  all  things.  He  cannot  conceive 
that  the  universe  should  have  come  into  exist- 
ence or  should  continue  without  God.  The 
glory  and  harmony  of  the  creation  fill  him  with 
devout  enthusiasm.  "  What  can  I,  a  lame  old 
man,  do  other  than  praise  God?  Were  I  a 
nightingale,  I  should  perform  the  office  of  a 
nightingale;  were  I  a  swan,  that  of  a  swan; 
but  as  I  am  a  rational  being,  I  must  praise  God. 
This  is  my  work,  this  I  do,  nor  shall  I  cease 
from  the  task  while  life  is  left  me.  And  upon 
you  also  I  call  to  intone 'this  hymn."  With  his 
last  breath  he  hopes  still  to  continue  his  sacred 
song :  "  Nothing  but  thanks  to  thee  do  I  utter, 
because  thou  hast  deemed  me  worthy  to  partake 
with  thee  of  life's  feast,  to  behold  thy  works, 
and  to  follow  thy  government  of  the  world." 
Day  and  night  he  is  mindful  of  the  divine  com- 
mands; his  thoughts  are  raised  to  Heaven,  and 


EPICTETUS.  215 

in  earthly  things  he  sees  God,  not  as  the  Creator 
alone,  but  also  as  the  Father  who  watches  over 
His  children  and  has  care  of  even  the  least 
among  them. 

Epictetus  takes  what  seems  to  him  true  and 
good  wherever  it  be  found.  He  has  no  respect 
for  mere  theory,  and  prizes  only  the  knowledge 
which  is  brought  to  bear  on  the  conduct  of  life. 
The  beginning  of  philosophy,  he  says,  is  the 
turning  from  intellectual  conceit  and  the  recog- 
nition of  one's  own  helplessness  in  the  most 
indispensable  things.  To  talk  like  a  Stoic  is 
easy ;  to  live  like  one  is  difficult.  He  challenges 
his  hearers  to  show  him  one  whose  life  is  in 
harmony  with  his  principles.  And  yet  all  that 
is  needed  is  the  will.  Will,  and  thou  art  free. 
From  within  come  salvation  and  ruin.  If  the 
heart  is  set  upon  external  things,  a  god  cannot 
rescue  thee.  But  let  us  forget  the  past,  he  cries, 
and  begin  anew.  God  has  placed  us  in  the  midst 
of  the  battle  of  life;  we  have  sworn  to  be  true 
to  Him,  our  king  and  leader,  to  defend  at  what- 
ever cost  the  post  He  has  assigned  us.  "I 
am  thine.  Where  will'st  thou  that  I  live  —  in 
Rome,  or  Athens,  or  Thebes,  or  on  the  desert 
island  of  Gyara?  Only,  be  mindful  of  me 
there." 
x-  Epictetus  is  not  a  Christian :  he  knows  noth- 


2l6  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

ing  of  God's  anger  and  mercy,  of  guilt  and 
punishment,  of  redemption  and  forgiveness.  In 
contradiction  with  his  doctrine  of  providence, 
he  holds  to  the  old  Stoic  tradition  which  per- 
mits suicide,  and  in  certain  cases  makes  it  a 
duty.  He  who  can  live  content  wherever  God 
places  him  is  ready  to  quit  the  tabernacle  of  the 
soul  if  the  house  is  too  full  of  smoke.  Though 
not  a  Christian,  he  certainly  knew  something 
of  the  Christian  religion.  He  lived  in  Rome 
as  student  and  teacher  of  philosophy  from  the 
year  73  to  95,  and  at  this  time  Christianity  had 
penetrated  even  the  higher  circles  of  Roman 
society ;  and  the  charge  of  atheism  which  caused 
Domitian  to  send  the  philosophers  into  exile 
led  him  also  to  banish  the  Christians,  many  of 
whom  suffered  martyrdom  while  Epictetus  was 
delivering  his  discourses  at  Nicopolis.  He  takes 
occasion  to  mention  the  heroism  with  which 
these  Galileans,  as  he  calls  them,  met  death. 
They  die  without  fear,  he  says,  not  from  igno- 
rance of  the  danger,  nor  from  weariness  of  life, 
nor  from  madness,  nor  yet  from  philosophic 
conviction,  but  from  habit.  Galileans  is  not  the 
name  by  which  the  Roman  writers  of  this  period 
designate  the  Christians.  They  did  not  call 
themselves  Galileans,  and  to  the  Jews  they  were 
known  as  Nazarenes.  It  is  probable,  therefore, 


EPICTETUS.  217 

that  Epictetus  found  the  word  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament writings,  where  the  epithet  is  not  in- 
frequently applied  to  the  followers  of  Jesus. 
Galen,  who  was  educated  in  the  Stoic  philos- 
ophy and  who  lived  but  a  short  time  after 
Epictetus,  speaks  of  the  contempt  for  death 
shown  by  "  those  men  who  are  called  Chris- 
tians." He  goes  on  to  say  that  their  doctrines 
are  delivered  in  parables,  which  are  more  easily 
understood  than  abstruse  arguments,  and  that 
their  lives  are  in  many  respects  like  to  that  of 
the  true  philosophers.  In  fact,  while  the  world 
view  of  the  Stoic  differs  radically  from  the 
Christian,  the  moral  teaching  of  the  pagan  phil- 
osopher and  of  the  follower  of  Christ  is  often 
much  the  same.  Both  attach  the  highest  im- 
portance to  religious  faith  and  sentiment;  both 
hold  that  virtue  is  the  chief  good;  both  em- 
phasize the  principle  of  liberty,  and  draw  from 
it  that  of  free  personality;  both  declare  that 
man  holds  his  earthly  possessions  as  a  steward 
of  the  divine  owner,  to  whom  he  is  responsible 
for  the  use  he  makes  of  them. 

The  early  Stoics  had  taught  in  a  general  way 
that  men  are  the  children  of  God,  but  in  Epic- 
tetus the  doctrine  is  developed  with  a  fulness 
which  is  found  in  no  writer  before  the  birth  of 
Christ.  He  preaches  with  fiery  zeal  that  all 


2l8  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  . 

men  are  children  of  God,  and  that  even  slaves 
must  be  considered  and  treated  as  brothers. 
For  him,  as  in  the  Gospel,  every  human  being 
is  one's  neighbor.  His  ideal  of  the  Cynic  or 
perfect  Stoic  is  that  of  a  Christian  apostle;  his 
view  of  celibacy  seems  to  have  been  taken  from 
St.  Paul.  The  portrait  he  draws  of  Hercules, 
as  a  conscious  son  of  God  and  savior  of  the 
world,  is  very  like  the  character  of  the  divine 
Master  as  revealed  in  the  New  Testament,  and 
unlike  that  of  the  traditional  Hercules,  who 
stands  at  the  parting  of  the  ways. 

But  Epictetus  —  though  he  certainly  knew 
something  of  the  Christian  faith,  and  though 
his  "  Manual "  was  a  favorite  book  of  some  of 
the  early  Christians,  and  became,  with  simply  a 
change  of  certain  words,  a  kind  of  rule  for  St. 
Nilus  and  the  anchorets  of  Mount  Sinai  —  re- 
mains a  Stoic.  For  him  God  is  not  love,  but 
the  eternal  destiny,  and  his  enthusiasm  for  hu- 
manity is  dominated  by  his  resignation  to  fate. 
His  religion  is  a  philosophical  piety  founded  on 
self-surrender  to  the  inexorable  laws  of  Nature. 
He  is,  nevertheless,  one  of  those  who  have  had 
the  clearest  insight  into  the  duties  of  man,  and 
his  utterances  have  now  for  eighteen  hundred 
years  been  a  source  of  patience,  courage,  and 
strength  to  minds  of  widely  varying  opinions 


EPICTETUS.  219 

and  beliefs.  He  is  a  genuine  man,  whose  true 
image  looks  out  upon  us  from  the  "Discourses." 
In  reading  him  we  lose  sight  of  his  metaphysical 
theories,  and  are  mindful  only  of  the  great  prin- 
ciples which  he  expresses  with  rare  force  and 
which  underlie  all  right  human  life. 


MARCUS  AURELIUS 


MARCUS  AURELIUS 

THE  intimate  thoughts  of  a  wise  and 
noble  man  concerning  whatever  touches 
the  human  heart  most  nearly  are  necessarily 
interesting,  and  when  he  who  utters  them  has 
stood  for  years  at  the  head  of  a  vast  and 
powerful  empire  his  words  receive  a  new  sig- 
nificance, which  is  still  further  heightened  by 
the  fact  that  he  writes  not  for  the  public,  but 
simply  to  render  to  himself  an  account  of  him- 
self. This  is  what  we  have  in  the  "  Medita- 
tions" of  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  Roman  emperor, 
a  man  so  modest,  so  sincere,  so  kindly,  so  mag- 
nanimous, that  to  know  him  is  to  conceive  a 
higher  opinion  of  the  race  which  in  him  attains 
to  such  dignity  and  virtue.  He  was  born  at 
Rome  in  the  year  121  of  the  Christian  era,  and 
died  in  180,  a  few  weeks  before  his  fifty-ninth 
birthday.  He  was  the  nephew  and  adopted  son 
of  Antoninus  Pius,  whom  from  early  manhood 
he  assisted  in  administering  public  affairs.  He 


224  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

became  emperor  at  the  age  of  forty,  and  reigned 
nineteen  years,  twelve  of  which  he  passed  in 
Asia  Minor,  Syria,  Greece,  Egypt,  and  the 
countries  on  the  Danube,  putting  down  rebel- 
lion or  defending  the  empire  against  the  at- 
tacks of  the  barbarians,  having  at  the  same 
time  to  face  various  public  misfortunes  —  in- 
undations, famines,  earthquakes,  fires,  and  pes- 
tilence —  which  caused  widespread  misery  and 
dismay.  But  though  constantly  surrounded  by 
grave  difficulties  and  dangers,  and  compelled  to 
travel  to  almost  every  part  of  the  empire,  he 
not  only  found  time  to  devote  himself,  as  a  wise 
and  careful  ruler,  to  even  the  minor  interests 
and  details  of  government,  but  also  to  occupy 
himself  with  the  study  of  philosophy  and  his 
own  improvement.  It  is  the  history  of  his  inner 
life,  as  recorded  in  his  journal,  that  has  made 
him  immortal,  and  placed  him  in  the  company 
of  the  few  in  whom  the  lovers  of  wisdom  and 
perfection  find  it  possible  to  take  genuine  de- 
light. The  book  has  small  literary  merit.  The 
language  is  without  elegance  or  distinction.  He 
tells  us  that  he  had  learned  to  abstain  from 
rhetoric  and  poetry  and  fine  writing.  He 
studied  simplicity  and  plainness  in  all  things. 
He  jots  down  detached  thoughts,  often  merely 
gives  us  notes  or  indications,  and  his  views  are 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  22$ 

seldom  profound  or  original.  He  is  a  Stoic, 
but  does  not  develop  or  follow  consistently  any 
system  of  philosophy.  He  wavers  and  is  un- 
certain precisely  in  those  things  in  which  a 
firm-rooted  faith  is  most  inspiring  and  invig- 
orating. Running  all  through  his  "  Medita- 
tions "  there  is  an  undercurrent  of  sadness  and 
despondency.  Is  it  because  he  is  compelled  to 
labor  in  a  vocation  for  which  Nature  did  not 
intend  him,  or  is  it  due  to  the  sight  of  the  cor- 
ruption and  worthlessness  of  those  by  whom  he 
was  surrounded,  indicating  plainly  to  him  that 
the  fabric  of  Roman  civilization  was  falling  to 
ruin,  or  is  it  to  be  attributed  to  the  fatalism 
which  determines  and  controls  his  world-view? 
There  was  little  either  in  the  condition  of  so- 
ciety or  in  his  own  religious  faith  to  cheer  and 
strengthen ;  and  yet  it  is  impossible  to  live  with 
him  in  his  book  without  feeling  that  we  are  in 
the  company  of  one  of  the  best,  wisest,  and 
bravest  of  men,  of  one  who,  placed  on  the 
summit  of  power  and  splendor,  was  never  for 
a  moment  blinded  by  the  glitter  and  the  show, 
but,  looking  steadily  into  the  heart  of  things, 
remained  simple,  sincere,  modest,  self-con- 
trolled, and  loving.  We  forget  that  he  was  an 
emperor;  we  care  not  in  what  style  he  utters 
himself;  we  are  not  curious  about  his  meta- 
15 


226  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

physical  theories,  or  disposed  to  argue  and  dis- 
pute; it  is  enough  that  we  are  in  his  presence, 
that  we  hear  his  words  of  wisdom  and  Stoic 
piety,  with  the  reverence,  candor,  and  devout- 
ness  with  which  he  speaks  them. 

He  is  a  born  teacher  of  morals,  a  born 
preacher  of  the  surpassing  worth  of  the  inner 
life;  and  this  natural  bent  was  confirmed  by 
his  education,  of  which  he  has  given  an  account 
in  the  first  book  of  the  "  Meditations,"  where 
he  mentions  with  gratitude  that  he  was  not  sent 
to  a  public  school,  and  that  his  tutors  were  men 
of  character  and  learning.  "  To  the  gods/'  he 
says,  "  I  am  indebted  for  having  good  grand- 
fathers, good  parents,  a  good  sister,  good 
teachers,  good  associates,  good  kinsmen  and 
friends  —  nearly  everything  good."  He  began 
his  studies,  as  was  the  custom  of  the  time,  with 
rhetoric  and  poetry,  but  at  the  age  of  twelve 
he  became  a  pupil  of  the  Stoics,  and  adopted 
their  austere  practices  as  well  as  their  dress, 
leading  a  life  so  abstemious  and  laborious  as 
to  injure  his  health,  which  remained  delicate. 
Much  of  his  youth  was  passed  in  the  country, 
at  the  villa  of  Lorium,  where,  while  continuing 
to  read,  he  engaged  in  the  pleasures  of  the  chase, 
mingled  with  the  vintagers,  and  occupied  him- 
self with  athletic  sports.  Here,  too,  he  enjoyed 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  22 7 

more  exclusively  the  society  and  conversation 
of  his  mother,  from  whom,  he  tells  us,  he 
learned  piety  and  beneficence,  and  abstinence 
not  only  from  evil  deeds,  but  even  from  evil 
thoughts,  and  simplicity  in  his  way  of  living 
far  removed  from  the  habits  of  the  rich.  By 
her  influence  also  he  was  strengthened  to  pre- 
serve intact  the  virginal  flower  of  his  youth. 
Nor  does  he  forget  to  mention  the  admirable 
precepts  given  by  his  tutors,  who  taught  him 
to  love  work,  to  deny  himself,  to  endure  mis- 
fortunes without  complaint,  not  to  deviate  from 
his  purpose,  to  be  considerate  of  others,  not  to 
listen  to  evil  speech,  to  be  grave  without  affec- 
tation, and  not  to  seek  excuses  for  neglecting 
duty.  Rusticus,  whom  he  thanks  for  having 
made  him  acquainted  with  the  "  Discourses  of 
Epictetus,"  warned  him  against  the  study  of 
what  is  merely  speculative  or  ornamental.  The 
example  of  his  masters  made  a  greater  impres- 
sion even  than  their  words;  and  what  touched 
him  most  was  their  patience,  firmness,  equa- 
nimity, mildness,  beneficence,  uprightness,  and 
sincerity.  In  these  "  Meditations  "  there  is  not 
the  faintest  trace  of  vanity.  He  is  lowly-minded 
and  the  most  modest  of  men.  His  candor  and 
truthfulness  are  perfect.  A  lie  seems  to  him 
to  be  an  outrage  upon  his  nature,  upon  the 


228  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

divinity  that  dwells  in  him.  He  strives  not 
only  to  think  and  feel,  but  to  love  what  he 
speaks.  He  is  present  in  these  thoughts,  and 
we  almost  seem  to  have  bodily  sight  of  him  as 
he  lived  and  bore  himself  nearly  eighteen  hun- 
dred years  ago. 

The  habit  of  recollection,  of  self-examination 
was  recommended  and  practised  by  the  Stoics 
before  the  time  of  Marcus  Aurelius.  "  Each 
day,"  says  Seneca,  "  we  should  call  our  soul  to 
account.  This  was  the  custom  of  Sextius,  who, 
before  taking  his  nightly  rest,  invariably  passed 
his  conduct  in  review :  Of  what  fault  hast  thou 
cured  thyself  to-day?  What  passion  hast  thou 
combated?  In  what  hast  thou  become  better?  " 
And  the  philosopher  goes  on  to  tell  us  how  each 
evening,  when  the  light  was  taken  from  his 
room,  and  his  wife,  from  respect  for  his  pious 
practice,  became  silent,  he  also  was  accustomed 
to  recall  whatever  he  had  done  or  spoken  during 
the  day,  without  dissimulating  or  omitting  any- 
thing whatever;  and  that  when  he  found  aught 
blameworthy,  he  pardoned  himself  only  on  con- 
dition that  the  fault  should  not  again  be  com- 
mitted. All  that  concerns  a  good  life  was 
brought  into  this  inquiry  —  the  right  use  of 
time,  the  avoidance  of  the  occasions  of  wrong- 
doing, human  respect,  the  keeping  guard  over 


MARCUS  AUREL1US.  22Q 

one's  thoughts  and  words,  mindfulness  of  the 
presence  of  God,  of  the  certainty  of  death,  and 
of  the  necessity  of  being  prepared  to  meet  it 
with  courage  and  dignity.  We  do  not  know 
that  Marcus  Aurelius  practised  this  daily  and 
methodical  examination  of  conscience,  but  he 
certainly  habitually  meditated  the  great  moral 
truths,  living  in  ideas,  not  in  material  interests ; 
in  principles,  not  in  passions.  In  his  youth  even, 
as  we  learn  from  one  of  his  letters  to  Pronto, 
he  was  accustomed  to  make  extracts  from  the 
books  he  read,  and  to  these  little  volumes,  into 
which  he  had  gathered  the  fine  essence  of  the 
best  writers,  he  doubtless  often  recurred.  In 
this  way  he  cultivated  a  taste  for  the  brief  and 
pregnant  sayings  of  the  Stoic  and  other  philos- 
ophers, and  found  in  them  new  incentives  to 
lead  a  worthy  life.  A  great  thought,  a  winged 
word  may  have  power  not  only  to  rouse  the 
conscience  and  the  will,  but  it  may  remain  with 
us  as  a  permanent  stimulus  to  virtuous  con- 
duct. A  phrase  may  fasten  itself  in  the  mind 
as  though  rivetted  with  bolts  of  steel,  or  it  may 
insinuate  itself  into  the  current  of  our  opinions 
and  beliefs,  and,  blending  with  it,  make  the 
waters  of  life  purer  and  sweeter.  He  loved 
thoughts  of  this  kind,  and  he  has  written  many 
which  will  continue  to  be  a  source  of  joy  and 


230  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  ' 

strength  as  long  as  generous  minds  and  hearts 
shall  be  found  on  earth.  What  he  says  has 
additional  charm  and  power  because  he  says  it, 
because  it  is  the  utterance  of  a  genuine  man, 
the  purity  and  nobleness  of  whose  character  can- 
not be  called  in  question,  the  testimony  which 
his  contemporaries  bore  to  his  wisdom,  mag- 
nanimity, and  goodness  being  confirmed  by  the 
consenting  voice  of  succeeding  generations. 
How  pleasant  and  invigorating  it  is  to  read 
considerations  like  these :  "  Such  as  thy  habit- 
ual thoughts,  such  also  will  be  the  character  of 
thy  mind,  for  the  soul  is  dyed  by  the  thoughts. 
Dye  it  then  with  a  continuous  series  of  such 
thoughts  as  these;  for  instance,  that  where  a 
man  can  live,  there  he  can  also  live  well.  Live 
with  the  gods.  Hold  good  to  consist  in  the 
disposition  to  justice  and  the  practice  of  it,  and 
in  this  let  thy  desire  terminate.  The  greatest 
part  of  what  we  say  or  do  being  unnecessary, 
if  a  man  takes  this  away,  he  will  have  more 
leisure  and  less  uneasiness.  We  ought  to  check 
in  the  series  of  our  thoughts  everything  that  is 
without  a  purpose  and  useless.  What  more  dost 
thou  want  when  thou  hast  done  a  man  a  ser- 
vice? Art  thou  not  content  that  thou  hast  done 
something  conformable  to  thy  nature,  and  dost 
thou  seek  to  be  paid  for  it,  just  as  if  the  eye 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  231 

./ 

demanded  a  recompense  for  seeing  or  the  feet 
for  walking?  Have  I  done  something  for  the 
general  good?  Well,  then,  I  have  had  my  re- 
ward. Let  it  not  be  in  any  man's  power  to  say 
truly  of  thee  that  thou  art  not  simple  or  that 
thou  art  not  good,  but  let  him  be  a  liar  who- 
ever shall  think  anything  of  this  kind  about 
thee.  Let  men  see,  let  them  know  a  real  man 
who  lives  according  to  Nature.  If  they  cannot 
endure  him,  let  them  kill  him.  Look  within. 
Within  is  the  fountain  of  good,  and  it  will  ever 
bubble  up  if  thou  wilt  ever  dig." 

Epictetus  and  Seneca  had  taught  much  of 
what  is  best  in  the  "  Thoughts "  of  Marcus 
Aurelius,  but  in  his  company  we  seem  to 
breathe  the  air  of  a  higher  and  serener  world. 
He  is  meek  and  patient,  affectionate  and  help- 
ful. In  his  words  there  is  nothing  to  recall  the 
hard  and  haughty  spirit  of  stoicism.  He  lives 
with  his  soul,  but  he  finds  the  good  of  life  in 
doing  good.  He  is  a  worker,  not  a  dreamer. 
He  strives  always  to  behave  like  a  Roman,  like 
a  man;  he  never  thinks  of  himself  apart  from 
his  fellow-men.  What  is  not  useful  for  the 
swarm  is  not  useful  for  the  bee.  His  purpose 
is  to  keep  himself  holy,  and  to  labor  for  the 
salvation  of  men,  for  the  welfare  of  society. 
He  seeks  inner  perfection  in  the  midst  of  courts 


232  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

and  camps,  but  neglects  no  duty  which  his  high 
office  imposes.  In  his  tent,  surrounded  by  bar- 
barous hordes,  he  directs  his  armies,  and  still 
has  time  to  write  his  tender  and  lofty  thoughts. 
In  these  he  finds  the  strength  to  bear  the  awful 
burden  which  is  laid  upon  him.  Each  morning 
he  reminds  himself  that  he  awakens  to  do  a 
man's  work.  Philosophy  is  his  mother,  while 
the  court  is  but  a  stepmother.  "  Return  to  phi- 
losophy frequently,  and  repose  in  her,  through 
whom  what  thou  meetest  with  in  the  court  ap- 
pears to  thee  tolerable,  and  thou  appearest  toler- 
able in  the  court."  He  is  conscious  of  the 
temptations  and  dangers  of  his  exalted  posi- 
tion, and  frequently  makes  them  the  subject  of 
his  "  Meditations."  "  Take  care  that  thou  be 
not  made  into  a  Caesar,  that  thou  be  not  dyed 
with  this  dye,  for  such  things  happen.  Keep 
thyself,  then,  simple,  good,  pure,  serious,  free 
from  affectation,  a  friend  of  justice,  a  worship- 
per of  the  gods,  kind,  affectionate,  strenuous  in 
all  proper  acts.  Strive  to  continue  to  be  such 
as  philosophy  wished  to  make  thee.  Reverence 
the  gods,  and  help  men."  He  encourages  him- 
self in  this  noble  purpose  by  recalling  the  ex- 
ample of  Antoninus,  his  adoptive  father  —  his 
constancy,  his  evenness  in  all  things,  his  piety, 
the  serenity  of  his  countenance,  his  sweetness, 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  233 

his  disregard  of  empty  fame,  and  his  efforts  to 
understand  things.  He  remembers  how  he  bore 
with  those  who  blamed  him  unjustly;  how  he 
did  nothing  in  a  hurry;  how  he  refused  to 
listen  to  calumnies;  how  he  was  content  with 
little;  how  laborious,  patient,  and  firm  he  was; 
how  tolerant  of  those  who  opposed  his  opinions ; 
how  eager  to  learn. 

Men  must  have  a  chief,  as  the  world  a  ruler, 
the  herd  a  leader;  but  this  chief  is  not  above 
the  laws.  His  ideal  is  that  "  of  a  polity  in  which 
there  is  the  same  law  for  all,  a  polity  admin- 
istered with  regard  to  equal  rights  and  equal 
freedom  of  speech,  and  the  idea  of  a  kingly 
government  which  respects  most  of  all  the  free- 
dom of  the  governed.''  He  abhors  whatever  is 
arbitrary  or  unjust,  and  finds  nothing  so  odious 
as  the  character  of  a  tyrant,  which  he  couples 
with  such  epithets  as  black,  bestial,  animal, 
stupid,  counterfeit,  scurrilous,  and  fraudulent. 
He  admires  the  martyrs  of  patriotism  who  have 
been  the  victims  of  tyrannical  emperors.  His 
knowledge  of  the  incredible  cruelties  of  some  of 
his  predecessors  on  the  imperial  throne  seemed 
to  drive  him  almost  to  excessive  leniency. 
When  he  heard  of  the  assassination  of  Avidius 
Cassius,  who  at  the  head  of  the  armies  of  Asia 
had  revolted,  and  against  whom  he  was  march- 


234  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH.  " 

ing,  he  said  he  was  sorry  to  be  deprived  of  the 
pleasure  of  pardoning  him.  He  does  not  think 
with  the  elder  Stoics  that  to  be  virtuous  one 
must  be  harsh  and  unbending.  "  In  mildness 
and  goodness,"  he  says,  "  there  is  a  higher 
quality  of  manliness."  His  constant  aim  is  to 
unite  benignity  with  firmness.  He  does  not 
wish  to  be  too  severe  even  with  himself.  "  It 
is  not  right  that  I  should  afflict  myself,  I  who 
have  never  willingly  given  pain  to  any  one." 
He  has  the  tenderness  and  delicacy  of  soul  of 
a  noble  woman.  There  is  a  large  benevolence 
and  sympathy  in  his  judgment  of  men,  even 
when  they  are  perverse.  He  is  ever  ready  to 
be  of  help ;  he  is  full  of  affection  and  clemency. 
The  temple  he  built  he  dedicated  to  Goodness, 
a  divinity  hitherto  unknown  in  Rome.  "  Love 
men,"  he  says,  "  but  with  a  genuine  love." 
"  Thou  dost  not  yet  love  men  with  all  thy 
heart."  "  It  is  not  enough  to  forgive ;  thou 
must  love  those  who  do  thee  wrong."  The 
only  revenge  he  permits  is  to  make  one's  self 
unlike  the  evil-doer.  Correct,  if  thou  canst,  the 
wicked ;  if  not,  suffer  them :  for  this,  good-will 
has  been  given  thee.  Be  like  the  vine,  which 
bears  its  fruit  and  asks  no  reward.  For  the 
rest,  to  be  a  blessing  to  others  is  to  be  a  friend 
to  one's  self.  When  there  is  question  of  doing 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  23$ 

good,  one  should  be  of  those  who  know  not 
what  they  c.o  —  a  benefactor  without  thinking 
that  any  one  is  his  debtor.  What  may  be 
called  his  great  precept  is :  Love  mankind ;  fol- 
low God.  He  has  no  weak  thoughts  about  his 
own  happiness.  It  is  well  enough  with  him 
when  he  lives  in  accord  with  universal  law, 
when  he  fulfils  his  duties  as  a  child  of  God  and 
a  member  of  the  whole  human  family.  Besides, 
has  he  not  a  sure  refuge  within  his  own  heart, 
where  at  every  moment  he  may  live  with  the 
thoughts  which  give  peace  to  the  soul?  It  is 
not  necessary  for  him  to  seek  the  seashore  or 
the  mountains  to  avoid  distractions,  for  it  is 
always  in  his  power  to  retire  into  himself,  and 
to  find  there  the  things  which  induce  the  tran- 
quil mind  —  those  brief  and  fundamental  prin- 
ciples which,  whenever  he  recurs  to  them,  make 
him  calm  and  strong,  and  send  him  back  free 
from  all  discontent  to  his  appointed  work.  Thus 
he  lives  in  intimate  communion  with  the  divin- 
ity present  within  him,  and  seeks  in  the  contem- 
plation of  the  laws  of  reason  protection  from 
temptation,  discouragement,  and  weakness.  His 
favorite  virtues  are  justice  and  truth ;  but  he  is 
in  tune  with  whatever  makes  for  magnanimity, 
freedom,  strength,  and  holiness  of  life.  He 
cares  not  for  fame,  or  wealth,  or  power,  or 


236  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

pleasure.  Things  are  largely  what  we  think 
they  are,  and  if  we  but  understand  that  virtue 
is  the  only  essential  good,  we  shall  not  deem 
poverty,  or  ill  health,  or  pain,  or  death  an  evil. 
One  may  be  a  divine  man  and  be  unknown, 
while  they  who  are  praised  are  praised,  for  the 
most  part,  ignorantly  or  by  the  false  and  the 
fickle.  What,  after  all,  is  man?  The  earth  is 
but  a  point,  and  the  present  in  which  alone  we 
can  live  but  a  moment  lost  between  two  in- 
finities. Fame  is  good  when  it  increases  the 
will  and  the  power  to  do  good,  else  it  is  naught, 
mere  sound,  and  emptiness.  The  clapping  of 
hands  and  the  clapping  of  tongues  are  vanities 
in  which  none  but  the  childish  take  delight. 
The  emotion  with  which  he  touches  on  the 
favorite  theme  of  dull  and  gloomy  declaimers 
—  the  hollowness  and  evanescence  of  human 
life  and  grandeur  —  imparts  a  certain  charm 
and  freshness  to  his  words :  "  Consider  the 
times  of  Vespasian!  Thou  wilt  see  all  these 
things  —  people  marrying,  bringing  up  chil- 
dren, sick,  dying,  warring,  feasting,  trafficking, 
cultivating  the  ground,  flattering,  obstinately 
arrogant,  suspecting,  plotting,  wishing  for 
somebody  to  die,  grumbling  about  the  present, 
loving,  heaping  up  treasure,  desiring  to  be  con- 
suls or  kings.  We  see,  then,  that  the  life  of  these 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  237 

people  no  longer  exists  at  all.  Again,  go  to 
the  times  of  Trajan.  All  is  again  the  same. 
Their  life,  too,  is  gone."  He  is  full  of  com- 
monplaces on  this  and  kindred  subjects.  He 
does  not  weary  of  them,  but  hunts  for  argu- 
ments and  comparisons  to  express  his  sense  of 
the  worthlessness  of  fame,  of  the  shortness  of 
life,  and  the  vanity  of  all  things,  especially 
of  those  which  attract  with  the  bait  of  pleasure 
or  terrify  by  pain,  or  are  noised  abroad  by  the 
voices  of  men.  What  belongs  to  the  body  is 
a  stream,  and  what  belongs  to  the  soul  is  a 
dream  and  a  vapor.  All  pass  quickly  and  are 
buried  in  oblivion,  both  they  who  remember 
and  they  who  are  remembered.  As  he  grows 
older  his  sense  of  the  hopeless  sadness  of  life 
grows  keener.  He  is  still  resigned,  still  obedi- 
ent to  the  eternal  laws,  but  he  advances  into 
ever-deepening  gloom,  where  no  ray  of  light 
falls.  His  health  was  broken,  and  the  evils 
which  he  had  worn  himself  out  in  trying  to 
overcome  were  breaking  forth  again  on  every 
side.  In  the  midst  of  his  own  family  he  was 
unhappy.  His  wife,  though  she  has  doubtless 
been  the  victim  of  calumny,  had  ceased  to  sym- 
pathize with  him,  and  hated  his  friends.  She 
had  grown  weary  of  his  philosophy  and  of  the 
society  of  philosophers.  His  austerity,  his  mel- 


238  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

ancholy,  his  aversion  to  gayety  and  splendor,  his 
grave  maxims,  were  offensive  to  her  pleasure- 
craving  nature.  Though  he  gave  no  heed  to 
the  malicious  rumors  about  her,  though  he  con- 
tinued to  love  her  as  "  his  good  and  faithful 
spouse,"  he  was  depressed  by  the  knowledge 
of  her  lack  of  heart  for  him.  Commodus,  his 
son  and  successor,  was  a  cause  of  still  more 
poignant  sorrow  than  Faustina.  He  was  a 
mere  animal,  without  intelligence  or  feeling, 
and  though  but  seventeen  years  old  at  the  time 
of  his  father's  death,  he  had  already  manifested 
something  of  the  dispositions  which  made  him 
later  one  of  the  most  brutal  tyrants  by  whom 
the  world  has  been  cursed. 

The  emperor  has  been  blamed  for  not  dis- 
inheriting him  and  adopting  some  one  worthy 
to  rule;  but  he  had  been  proclaimed  Caesar 
while  yet  a  boy,  and  by  the  time  his  evil  nature 
had  revealed  itself  Marcus  was  too  infirm  to 
take  so  decisive  a  step.  In  fact,  it  would  have 
been  necessary  to  murder  him,  for  had  he  been 
left  alive  the  military  party,  already  disgusted 
with  the  rule  of  the  philosophers,  as  shown  in 
the  revolt  of  Avidius,  would  have  placed  him 
at  the  head  of  the  army,  and  plunged  the  em- 
pire into  the  horrors  of  civil  war.  And  then 
what  is  more  natural  than  that  a  father  should 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  239 

believe  that  time  and  responsibility  would  cor- 
rect the  faults  of  his  youthful  son?  Neverthe- 
less, Commodus  filled  him  with  forebodings  and 
increased  his  weight  of  care  and  pain,  which  al- 
ready was  too  heavy  for  his  declining  strength. 
His  friends  are  dead,  the  barbarians  are  in  arms, 
the  corruption  of  morals  is  spreading,  faith  in 
the  gods  has  degenerated  into  gross  supersti- 
tion, the  reforms  which  he  had  labored  to  bring 
about  are  superficial  and  ineffectual,  the  laws 
had  been  made  better,  but  the  life  of  the  people 
continued  to  become  more  false  and  brutal,  the 
army  was  losing  its  old-time  loyalty  and  dis- 
cipline—  on  all  sides  the  signs  of  decadence 
were  manifest. 

In  the  midst  of  a  falling  world,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  northern  hordes,  menacing  destruc- 
tion and  ruin,  the  emperor  still  meditates,  still 
studies  how  he  may  fortify  his  soul.  He  does 
not  despise  death,  but  waits  for  it,  content  to 
see  it  come.  It  will  deliver  him  from  the  sight 
of  the  corruption  by  which  he  is  surrounded. 
His  departure  will  not  be  from  men  who  have 
the  same  principles  as  himself.  "  Come  quick, 
O  Death!  lest  perchance  I,  too,  should  forget 
myself/'  There  will  not  be  lacking  those  who 
are  glad  to  see  him  go,  whose  lives  his  very 
presence  condemns :  "  Let  us  at  last  breathe 


240  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

freely,  being  relieved  from  this  schoolmaster/' 
In  dying  he  will  go  away  from  those  for  whom 
he  strove,  prayed,  and  cared  so  much,  but  who 
nevertheless  wish  to  see  him  depart,  hoping 
thereby  to  get  some  little  advantage.  "  Why, 
then,  should  he  desire  to  stay  longer  ?  "  It  is 
better  to  be  dead  than  to  live  as  they.  Thou 
art  in  the  grasp  of  fatal  laws;  be  not  like  a 
pig  that  squeals  and  struggles  when  it  is  sacri- 
ficed, but  accept  with  resignation  what  destiny 
decrees.  Men  are  but  leaves  which  the  wind 
seizes  and  scatters  on  the  ground.  Thus  weari- 
ness of  life  grows  upon  him,  until  he  seems  to 
be  without  God  and  without  hope  in  the  world. 
In  fact,  he  had  neither  a  philosophy  nor  a  reli- 
gion which  can  satisfy  the  human  heart.  He 
was  never  able  to  settle  for  himself  the  ultimate 
problems,  the  foundations  of  all  ethical  princi- 
ples —  God,  immortality,  and  the  freedom  of 
the  will.  He  speaks  as  a  polytheist,  or  a  theist, 
or  a  pantheist,  according  to  his  mood.  At 
Athens  he  founded  chairs  of  philosophy  for 
the  Platonic,  Stoic,  Peripatetic,  and  Epicurean 
schools,  giving  the  same  honor  to  the  atheist 
as  to  the  believer  in  the  gods.  At  times  he 
seems  to  doubt  even  that  to  which  he  holds 
most  firmly.  His  grasp  of  speculative  truth  is 
feeble;  he  is  strong  and  helpful  only  as  a 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  241 

teacher  of  the  conduct  of  life.  Outside  of  this 
we  find  in  him  little  but  uncertainty  and  con- 
fusion. His  moral  principles  even  rest  on  no 
foundation  of  dogma,  or,  if  on  any,  it  is  that 
of  cosmic  pantheism.  His  theology  is  as  vague 
and  variable  as  his  philosophy.  He  has  no 
settled  convictions  concerning  the  soul  and  its 
immortality.  When  our  little  boat  comes  to 
shore  and  we  get  out,  he  leaves  it  undecided 
whether  it  is  to  enter  on  another  life  or  simply 
to  lose  all  sensation,  to  cease  to  be.  His 
thought  moves  between  alternatives.  "  To  go 
from  among  men,  if  there  are  gods,  is  not  a 
thing  to  be  afraid  of,  for  the  gods  will  not  in- 
volve thee  in  evil;  but  if,  indeed,  they  do  not 
exist,  or  if  they  have  no  concern  about  human 
affairs,  what  is  it  to  me  to  live  in  a  universe 
devoid  of  gods  or  devoid  of  providence?" 
Then  he  reassures  himself  and  declares  that 
the  gods  do  exist,  and  that  they  do  care  for 
human  things;  at  least  they  place  the  avoid- 
ance of  real  evils  in  a  man's  power.  But  death 
and  life,  honor  and  dishonor,  pain  and  pleasure, 
are  neither  good  nor  evil,  and  therefore  they 
happen  alike  to  all.  God  is  for  him  the  uni- 
versal reason,  the  immutable  law  which  governs 
all  things.  He  is  the  whole,  He  is  nature  it- 
self; the  indwelling  force  which  gives  order 
16 


242  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

and  beauty  to  the  universe.  How  this  divinity, 
this  inexorable  fate,  is  to  be  reconciled  with 
providence  and  with  the  freedom  of  the  will,  or 
to  be  made  an  object  of  prayer  and  adoration, 
he  does  not  attempt  to  explain.  "  Out  of  the 
universe  from  the  beginning  everything  which 
happens  has  been  apportioned  and  spun  out  to 
thee."  "  Accept  everything  which  happens, 
even  if  it  seem  disagreeable,  because  it  leads 
to  this,  to  the  health  of  the  universe  and  to  the 
prosperity  and  felicity  of  Zeus."  Here  he  joins 
theism  and  pantheism,  but  by  Zeus  he  really 
means  the  universe,  the  universal  substance  of 
which  the  individual  has  but  a  very  small  por- 
tion. As  this  universal  substance  exists  neces- 
sarily, from  it  by  fatal  laws  the  thread  of  each 
one's  destiny  is  spun.  "  Whatever  may  happen 
to  thee  was  prepared  for  thee  from  all  eternity, 
and  the  implication  of  causes  was  from  eternity 
spinning  the  thread  of  thy  being."  At  times 
he  seems  to  regard  the  universe  as  an  immense 
animal,  "  one  living  being,  having  one  sub- 
stance and  one  soul."  But  it  is  perhaps  wrong 
to  insist  on  the  theoretical  views  of  a  man  who 
had  little  intellectual  curiosity,  and  cared  hardly 
at  all  for  what  is  speculative.  Still  it  is  im- 
possible not  to  recognize  that  he  himself  felt 
that  the  help  which  pantheism  can  offer  the  soul 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  243 

is  ineffectual.  Even  a  philosopher  can  derive 
small  comfort  from  the  thought  that  his  ab- 
sorption into  the  mass  of  matter  is  for  the  inter- 
est of  the  All,  which  contains  nothing  that  is 
not  for  its  advantage.  For  the  multitude  such 
a  belief  is  without  worth  or  meaning.  Stoic 
morality  is  interesting  chiefly  on  account  of  its 
influence  upon  men  like  Epictetus  and  Marcus 
Aurelius,  who  found  in  it  a  source  of  strength 
in  the  midst  of  the  universal  corruption  in  which 
Greco-Roman  civilization  was  disappearing.  It 
could  never  have  become  a  principle  of  social 
regeneration.  The  fatalism  on  which  it  rests 
makes  enthusiasm  impossible.  Its  resignation 
is  despondency;  its  indifference  hopelessness. 
It  lacks  vitality  and  joyousness.  There  is  in 
it  no  love  of  life,  no  belief  in  progress.  The 
Stoic  sage  stands  alone,  conscious  of  his  own 
virtue,  in  the  midst  of  a  world  of  liars  and 
hypocrites.  He  is  not  angry  with  men;  he  is 
kind  even,  and  glad  to  be  of  help;  but,  in 
truth,  he  has  little  sympathy  with  them.  They 
are  blind  and  perverse,  an  infinite  number  of 
fools,  who  are  deprived  of  that  which  alone  can 
make  life  bearable.  Hence  stoicism  necessarily 
fails.  It  can  neither  interest  nor  influence  the 
mass  of  mankind.  It  is  dry  and  hard.  It  in- 
spires no  glad  emotion,  no  immortal  hope.  It 


244  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

does  not  thrill  the  soul  with  the  consciousness 
that  Life  is  lord  of  Death,  that  truth  and  love 
lie  at  the  heart  of  being,  that  whether  we  live 
or  whether  we  die  we  are  borne  in  the  arms  of 
the  eternal  Father,  who  knows  and  cares  for 
each,  even  the  least  of  His  children.  It  cannot 
make  us  feel  that  the  loving  spirit  of  God  leads 
us  forth  into  the  land  of  righteousness,  that  we 
are  reborn  into  a  kingdom  of  peace  and  joy 
and  blessedness.  It  cannot  give  the  faith  which 
overcomes  all  things,  and  guides  us  through  the 
portals  of  death  into  everlasting  life.  It  has  no 
words  of  pardon  and  comfort  for  sinners  who 
repent.  The  power  that  was  to  regenerate  the 
world  was  already  active  under  the  eyes  of 
Marcus  Aurelius,  but  was  wholly  misunder- 
stood by  him.  He  alludes  to  the  Christian  re- 
ligion once  only.  "  What  a  soul/'  he  writes, 
"  that  is  which  is  ready,  if  at  any  moment  it 
must  be  separated  from  the  body,  and  ready 
either  to  be  extinguished,  or  dispersed,  or  to 
continue  to  exist;  but  so  that  this  readiness 
comes  from  a  man's  own  judgment,  not  from 
mere  obstinacy,  as  with  the  Christians !  "  From 
his  point  of  view  the  martyrs  were  obdurate 
fanatics  and  enemies  of  the  empire.  Of  his 
humanity  and  tolerance  there  can  be  no  doubt, 
but,  unfortunately,  there  can  be  just  as  little 


MARCUS   AURELIUS.  245 

doubt  that  he  persecuted  the  Christians,  or  at 
the  least  permitted  them  to  be  persecuted.  In- 
tensely moral  natures  are  apt  to  be  narrow  and 
rigid,  and  though  several  apologies  for  the  new 
faith  were  addressed  to  him,  he  either  never 
read  them  or  was  incapable  of  taking  a  world- 
view  so  utterly  opposed  to  that  of  the  Stoic 
philosophy.  They  who  are  placed  in  high  sta- 
tions are  often  the  last  to  see  the  real  trend  of 
things,  for  the  possession  of  power,  like  the 
possession  of  wealth  or  the  indulgence  of  ap- 
petite, seems  to  impede  insight;  and  this  kind- 
hearted  and  spiritual-minded  man  had  not  a 
suspicion  of  the  true  nature  of  the  teaching  of 
Christ.  It  did  not  appeal  to  him  as  a  philos- 
ophy, and  as  a  religion  it  seemed  to  him  athe- 
istic, for  it  denied  the  existence  of  the  gods 
whom  he  revered  and  whose  worship  he  thought 
inseparable  from  loyalty  to  the  empire.  He  felt, 
as  all  the  thoughtful  minds  of  the  time  felt,  that 
here  was  a  new  spirit,  which,  if  it  should  pre- 
vail, would  lead  to  the  overthrow  of  the  old 
civilization.  He  may  not  have  held  with  Taci- 
tus that  the  Christians  were  convicted  of  hatred 
of  the  human  race,  but  he  believed  that  they 
were  the  enemies  of  the  Roman  state.  The 
ancients  looked  upon  religion  as  essentially  a  na- 
tional affair.  They  had  no  conception  of  what 


246  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

we  understand  by  liberty  of  conscience.  The 
appeal  from  Caesar  to  God  was  for  them  mean- 
ingless, if  not  impious.  When  the  Christians 
declared  that  they  were  ready  to  obey  all  civil 
and  military  laws,  but  reserved  to  themselves 
freedom  to  worship  God  according  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  their  faith,  which  forbade  them  to  offer 
sacrifice  to  idols,  they  uttered  words  which  their 
enemies  could  not  understand,  words  which 
Christians  themselves  in  later  ages  have  often 
been  unable  or  unwilling  to  understand. 

It  was  but  two  or  three  years  before  the 
death  of  Marcus  Aurelius  that  the  persecution 
broke  forth  at  Lyons.  The  emperor,  who  be- 
came prematurely  old,  was  in  feeble  health  and 
surrounded  by  dangers  and  difficulties.  The 
populace,  eager  to  believe  the  Christians  guilty 
of  the  most  atrocious  crimes,  attributed  what- 
ever evils  befell  the  state  to  the  anger  of  the 
gods  against  their  contemners,  and  clamored 
for  their  punishment.  The  emperor  yielded  to 
the  popular  fury,  and  the  church  of  Lyons  gave 
to  the  world  an  example  of  heroism  which,  if 
ever  equalled,  has  never  been  surpassed.  It  is 
the  very  irony  of  fate  that  Marcus  Aurelius 
should  be  counted  among  the  persecutors  of  the 
Christians,  that  his  name  should  be  coupled 
with  those  of  Nero  and  Domitian.  It  is  doubt- 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  24? 

ful  whether  he  himself  issued  a  new  edict  or 
simply  permitted  those  of  his  predecessors  to 
be  enforced.  Melito,  Bishop  of  Sardis,  who 
addressed  a  letter  to  the  emperor,  leads  us  to 
suppose  that  he  had  sent  forth  decrees  which 
resulted  in  the  martyrdom  of  St.  Polycarp, 
Bishop  of  Smyrna,  ten  years  before  the  per- 
secution at  Lyons. 

On  the  other  hand,  Tertullian,  writing  twenty 
years  after  the  death  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  affirms 
in  the  most  positive  manner  that  he  protected 
the  Christians;  that  if  he  did  not  expressly  re- 
voke the  edicts  of  former  emperors  against  them, 
he  at  least  rendered  them  ineffective  by  estab- 
lishing penalties  against  their  accusers.  It  seems 
probable  that  he  was  not  an  active  persecutor; 
but  he  certainly  lived  and  died  with  an  utter 
misconception  of  the  religion  which  even  then 
was  the  only  vital  force  left  to  a  perishing 
world. 

He  was,  nevertheless,  one  of  the  most  just 
and  clement  of  men.  There  is  little  genuine 
wisdom  and  goodness  anywhere,  and  what  there 
is  is  rarely  found  in  the  palaces  of  kings  and 
emperors.  Let  us  try  to  imagine  a  European 
ruler  or  an  American  President  of  our  day  who 
should  be  busy  with  the  thoughts  and  aspira- 
tions of  Marcus  Aurelius.  The  mere  idea  seems 


248  GLIMPSES  OF  TRUTH. 

to  be  grotesque.  He  is  one  in  whom  the  wise 
have  recognized  the  genuine  goodness  which 
has  the  mark  of  universality,  which,  like  the 
best  culture,  lifts  its  possessor  above  party  and 
country,  and  makes  him  a  blessing  for  mankind 
and  for  all  time. 

In  reading  his  "  Meditations  "  we  are  always 
in  the  presence  of  a  magnanimous  man,  of  a 
great  soul  whose  kindliness  and  good  faith  we 
cannot  doubt  unless  we  ourselves  lack  love  and 
truth.  He  will  remain  in  literature  as  one  of  its 
great  spiritual  forces.  He  has  the  vital  touch 
which  gives  immortality,  because  it  reveals  a 
noble  and  interesting  personality.  There  is  in 
him  the  indefinable  something  which  makes 
writing  literature.  It  is  doubtless  largely  sin- 
cerity, the  perfect  truthfulness  which  makes  the 
word  the  mirror  of  the  man.  Much  of  what 
he  says  is  said  by  Seneca  and  Epictetus,  but  in 
it  there  is  an  accent  of  his  own  which  gives  it 
a  fresh  meaning,  a  new  quality.  In  these  dis- 
connected "  Thoughts/'  in  spite  of  repetitions, 
of  incorrectness,  and  obscurity,  there  breathes 
a  soul  that  cannot  die,  there  stands  forth  a  char- 
acter which  all  men  must  deem  it  a  privilege  to 
know.  The  book  is  alive  with  the  high  and  rare 
qualities  which  go  to  the  making  of  a  true  and 
noble  man.  In  the  little  casket  found  in  the 


MARCUS  AURELIUS.  249 

tent  on  the  Danube  where  he  died  there  was 
stored  a  life  which  death  could  not  extinguish. 
The  "  Meditations  "  with  which  he  fortified  his 
own  spirit  in  the  struggle  for  better  and  higher 
life  have  consoled  and  will  continue  to  console 
kindred  spirits  in  every  age;  for  whatever  his 
doubts  and  misgivings,  his  faith  in  duty  and 
affection,  in  the  supreme  worth  of  righteous- 
ness, was  never  shaken.  His  victories  are  for- 
gotten; his  efforts  to  improve  the  laws,  to 
spread  enlightenment,  to  help  the  orphans,  are 
hardly  remembered;  but  fame,  for  which  he 
cared  not  at  all,  is  his  forever,  and  of  our  many 
vanities  perhaps  the  least  vain  is  the  fame  which 
rests  on  words  that  never  lose  their  power  to 
inspire,  to  illumine,  and  to  strengthen.  The 
whole  earth  is  the  sepulchre  of  illustrious  men, 
but  it  is  so  only  when  the  greatness  of  soul 
which  shone  forth  in  their  lives  is  kept  in  im- 
perishable vigor  in  some  immortal  book. 


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